Well, good morning.
Today, we are going to share in our basic lesson series—fundamentals. What I had on my heart was: function faithfully in fellowship. Or you can turn it around: in fellowship, function faithfully.
Maybe we could just say a prayer real quick.
Lord, we thank You for this life You have given us. We thank You that it is a full life, a life to be shared in spirit and to display Your body on this earth until You come—to declare the Lord’s death until He comes. Lord, we thank You for that calling, and we pray You would grant grace this morning to fellowship in life. In Jesus’ name.
I think the pollen and oak sawdust has done me in.
I would like to look at a couple of familiar verses as we begin. It is interesting: the theme of our time this morning was really around life—resurrection life, new life—and that is one of the things I wanted to start with.
Our fellowship is a fellowship of life. Let us read 1 John 1:1-4. Remember, we studied this in our Friday night times a while back. These times are so good for me. I love these times, and a lot of the things we fellowship there stick.
That which was from the beginning,
that which we have heard,
that which we have seen with our eyes,
that which we beheld,
and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life—and the life was manifested,
and we have seen, and bear witness,
and declare unto you the life, the eternal life,
which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us—that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also,
that ye also may have fellowship with us:
yea, and our fellowship is with the Father,
and with His Son Jesus Christ.And these things we write,
that our joy may be made full.
It is interesting. We talked about life: the Word of life, the life was manifested, and this is what we have seen and heard. We proclaim to you so that you may have fellowship with us. Indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
Let us read another verse in Acts—one you will have heard before if you have been around me much: Acts 2:42.
This verse is in the context of the birth of the church at Pentecost, after Peter’s powerful sermon—Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, giving one of the greatest speakings ever. What happened right on the heels of Peter speaking?
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
The first thing I wanted to talk about was the basis of our fellowship. A while back, I spoke on the book of John, and the theme verse I used was the same one Jim Bogg has been using as he has been sharing on John: John 20:31.
The apostle John came at the end of the early church, at the end of that first century. We think of John as being a mender of nets. He was trying to recover things, restore things, return to the beginning. His burden was that we might see this life—the Christ-life.
But these are written,
that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;
and that believing ye may have life in His name.
We shared before that there are three types of life used in the Bible. It is good to remember what kind of life we are talking about here.
This verb, “that you may have life,” is a present having. It is not that we received life when we were born again and then it stopped. It is that you might be having life in His name.
So, the basis from which we move out in fellowship is Christ-life. We need to remember that we are saved and forgiven—our sins were washed by the blood—but also that we were born again. We became new creatures in Christ, alive from the dead.
It is not an external thing. This new life is a deeply internal, personal thing. That is why it is so good to remember at the table that we are alive in Christ.
Let us look at John 3, another very familiar passage. This is when Nicodemus came to the Lord at night, in the dark. Nicodemus probably came in the night because he did not want people to see him coming to the Lord.
Nicodemus said:
Rabbi, we know that Thou art come from God as a teacher;
for no one can do these signs that Thou doest,
except God be with Him.
He saw a great Teacher, a great Man. But right away, Jesus hit the mark with Nicodemus:
Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except one be born anew,
he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus, this is not about great things. This is not about external things. This is not about doing great miracles and works. This is about you being born again. This is a new life and a different basis.
As we receive the Lord, we are forgiven from our sins, and that is very good. We need always to remember our forgiveness and practice keeping short accounts. But there is more—wait, there is more. We also need to remember that we were born again. We have a new life, a life in spirit.
What are we supposed to do with that life? Feed it. Exercise our spirits. However that touches you, we are to live out from that life.
There is a next step we want to talk about this morning: the progression of that life into fellowship. Sharing that new life together is a natural fruit of being born again. If we are born again, we ought to want to be together. We want to share that life in spirit.
Being together and sharing life in the spirit is not something we should do out of duty or compunction. It should be a fruit of that new life. We cannot hold back. We should long to be with the saints and share that life. It is a normal fruit of being born again.
We also need to remember that there is great resistance to fellowship—great resistance to being together and sharing the life of Christ. We can all witness to that. But this fellowship, this sharing of life, is right down the center of God’s purpose. It is not an add-on; it is a natural development and flow of being born again.
The body is building itself up in love through fellowship. Since Christ is not physically with us anymore, the body of Christ today is expressed through fellowship, through functioning together. We declare the Lord’s death until He comes, and the bride is making herself ready. Fellowship is really key.
What is fellowship? Webster says it is companionship; company; community of interest, activity, feeling, or experience; the state of being a fellow or associate; a company of equals or friends; the quality or state of being comradely.
The man I worked for when I first started at the company I used to work for—when it still existed—would open our management meetings and retreats by saying that he was looking forward to a time of working together in fellowship.
He was a good man. I still see him every once in a while around town. But the fellowship he was talking about was more earthly, more worldly. We had things in common, learned to work together, wanted success for the company, and wanted to make money. It was a worldly idea of fellowship.
What is the word the Bible translates as fellowship? Koinonia. Vine says it means communion, fellowship, sharing in common, and communication. It is most frequently translated “fellowship.”
Communion—that word alone takes it to a different level when we talk about Christian fellowship. It is a commonness; it is a sharing of something together. What is it we share together? Christ-life: resurrection life, victorious life, life in the spirit, life as God has it.
John says that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Unless our fellowship is based on experiential knowledge in the life of Christ, it is ultimately going to fail.
We need to be careful that we do not know one another after the flesh, but know the Christ in one another. We look for Christ. Often, we see the flesh and are put off by being together, but we want to share the Christ-life in us.
One translation of koinonia is communion. As we have had our lessons on the Lord’s table, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 says:
The cup of blessing which we bless,
is it not a communion of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break,
is it not a communion of the body of Christ?Seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body:
for we all partake of the one bread.
We could translate that: “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a fellowship in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread we break a fellowship in the body of Christ?”
We are meant to have fellowship. We are born fellowshipers.
It is important to remember that fellowship is not merely sharing about the Lord. It is not merely sharing about Christ and the Father. We can fall into that easily. We can find passages and words that have blessed us, but it is the life of Christ, as revealed in His Word, that we really share.
We can miss the Lord if we hang solely on the written Word. The Word brings life, and it is the life that we share. That is why we are in the Word.
That Christ-life should be a strong attraction. It is a strong attraction, and we should long to be together to share that life. What more blessed thing is there than to be with a brother and sister?
The centrality of fellowship and what God is after is very important. Let us turn to Acts 1.
This is one reason fellowship is so vital and so important in what the Lord is after.
The first account I composed, Theophilus,
about all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.
What was the first account? The book of Luke. Acts was written by Luke, Paul’s physician who traveled with him. He says that his first account concerned all that Jesus began to do and teach. What is the implication? That He is continuing to do and teach.
What is the vehicle through which He continues to do and teach? His body. The Lord is not physically with us today, but He is here in spirit, Head over all things to His church. We are to be the corporate man, the body of Christ, and the corporate man is built up through fellowship.
Paul was a great expositor of this body of Christ, this corporate man. Consider 1 Corinthians 12:12:
For as the body is one,
and hath many members,
and all the members of the body, being many, are one body;
so also is Christ.
“We are Christ’s body,” and we are many members. The testimony, the witness, of Christ on this earth today is through His body in the local assembly.
Let us look at a few verses that emphasize this great calling to be the body. This body of Christ is built up through fellowship. We are only hoping to scratch the surface today. The value of a time like this will really be borne out as we each prepare, consider these passages, and participate on Friday night.
But speaking truth in love,
may grow up in all things into Him,
who is the head, even Christ;from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together
through that which every joint supplieth,
according to the working in due measure of each several part,
maketh the increase of the body
unto the building up of itself in love.—Ephesians 4:15-16
Every joint supplies. The body is fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies. So the obvious question is: are we joints of supply? Are you a joint of supply?
And not holding fast the Head,
from whom all the body,
being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands,
increaseth with the increase of God.—Colossians 2:19
In fellowship, we are joints of supply. In relation to one another, we are joints of supply. We are bands; we hold things together by being a joint of supply. If we are not in fellowship, we cannot enter into what has been shown to us here.
A number of times lately, we have heard about watching and praying. Watch and pray. What is the hour? I think it is very important to watch and pray in the area of fellowship.
Fellowship is so important. We should not be surprised that there is such great resistance against being together and fellowshipping with one another.
This world system demands our souls. Who that is working in a worldly job right now does not sense that? The world demands our souls. There is an external force that would cause us to be worn out and keep us away from fellowship.
There is also a great internal condition: the soul-life. Our natural life keeps us from fellowship. That is why it is so important to deny ourselves and take up our cross. It is costly to be in fellowship. If we do not deny ourselves, we are going to stay out, hold back, and not be involved in what the Lord is doing.
What I would like to do now is read a section from Romans 12. I want to bring out three things in this section:
Romans 12 is a very interesting chapter. Paul says at the beginning of his letter that he is not ashamed of the gospel. We often think of it as a gospel of initial salvation, but the whole book is the gospel.
In the first eleven chapters, Paul talks about the basics of salvation: that we are justified, sanctified, and glorified. Then, at the beginning of chapter 12, there is a break. Paul’s writings almost always have a doctrinal section, and then he moves into a practical section. This is the practical section.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service.And be not fashioned according to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.—Romans 12:1-2
“Therefore”: because you have been redeemed, because you have new life, because you are alive in spirit, new creatures in Christ. We often think presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice means doing something big—going out on the mission field, perhaps. But think about the context. I believe the context of this passage is the local assembly.
For through the grace that was given me I say to every man among you,
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think;
but so to think as to think soberly,
according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith.For even as we have many members in one body,
and all the members have not the same office:
so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,
and severally members one of another.And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us,
whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith;
or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry;
or he that teacheth, to his teaching;
or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting:
he that giveth, let him do it with liberality;
he that ruleth, with diligence;
he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.—Romans 12:3-8
Let love be without hypocrisy.
Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another;
in honor preferring one another;
in diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing steadfastly in prayer;
communicating to the necessities of the saints; given to hospitality.Bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse not.
Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep.
Be of the same mind one toward another.
Set not your mind on high things, but condescend to things that are lowly.
Be not wise in your own conceits.
Render to no man evil for evil.
Take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men.—Romans 12:9-17
As we prepare for our Friday nights, perhaps we could meditate on that passage—particularly Romans 12:9 through the end—and consider what fellowship is.
Where does fellowship start? We have already talked about that. Fellowship starts at our new birth. The seed of fellowship is in that new life.
But John says that, in order for us to have fellowship, we need first to see that our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son.
When we are together, if we do not bring a supply of Christ into that relationship—whether individual or corporate—we are not bringing a joint of supply. We need to bring Christ.
How do we bring Christ? Through spiritual exercise. We meditate, read the Word, pray, and fellowship with the Lord, so that the Lord becomes our life. Then we have that life to share. Again, we take the cross, deny our self-life, and put on Christ. That is the basis of our fellowship.
The verses before Romans 12:9 talk about gifts. These can seem like the more charismatic or visible gifts. But from verse 9 onward, we have what I would call the graces.
If we think only of gifts, we can be tempted not to function. We can say, “I do not have a gift. I do not have a gift of prophecy. I do not have a gift of that, so I am not very important.” Then we sit back.
But from verse 9 onward, this is for all of us—one-talent people, those who are born again. The basic Christ-life in us should give rise to these things:
Do we love the saints? We can think more highly of ourselves and say, “Well, so-and-so has issues.” They also have the Lord. They also have Christ.
“Not lagging behind in diligence”—that gets back to functioning faithfully. “Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord”: serving the Lord in the house of God locally. “Rejoicing in hope”: do we rejoice with one another?
“Persevering in tribulation and devoted to prayer.” Persevering in tribulation could be a whole series, could it not? We need to encourage each other in these difficult days to persevere. How many have been tempted to throw in the towel in the last year? Do not do it. Encourage one another.
“Contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” Are you contributing to the needs of the saints? I think this is for all of us. We ought to be doing these things in some way. If you do not have finances, there is another way to contribute to the needs of the saints in fellowship.
When you think of hospitality, do you think of cooking a big meal and cleaning the house for a week? Cleaning the kitchen, dusting the blinds, getting the house spotless, and then you can have fellowship? Goodness, I could never have anybody stay at my house.
That is all right. Wash the sheets and throw them on the bed. They can stay at your house.
Real practically, hospitality is something we can do that really satisfies fellowship in the building up of the body. We do not have to make it such a big thing.
We can call someone and ask if they want to go out for coffee. McDonald’s has something called a senior coffee. Their coffee has gotten pretty good. Or Wendy’s chili—Wendy’s chili is really good. Call a brother and have lunch. Pick up the telephone. Email. Fellowship. Encourage.
We are not just slapping each other on the back. We want to be together to share Christ.
“Bless those who persecute you.” What is our first response if someone persecutes us? We get riled up. We cannot take the cross. We cannot deny ourselves. Bless them. I think this applies in the house of God—in the assembly, in fellowship. Bless, and curse not.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind. Associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil.
Often, we hear: “I am lonely. No one invites me over. Nobody had me over for a meal. I am really offended. I am offended with the whole thing. I am offended with my group. I am offended with fellowship because nobody pays attention to me.”
What is the answer to that? My phone works both ways. My email is omnidirectional.
Are you lonely? Are you neglected? Find somebody else who is lonely and neglected. Find somebody who is alone. On a holiday, if you have no one to share Easter ham with, call somebody up and say, “Hey, do you want to come over to my place? We can get a ham, or we can go to Bob Evans and have turkey dinner.”
Do not isolate yourselves. Do not isolate yourselves. There is no quicker cure to depression and discouragement than reaching out to somebody else and sharing the Lord with them. I am telling you that.
Thirdly, the flow of fellowship is in our assembling together. What is the very definition of the church? The body of Christ—the called-out ones assembled together.
The called-out ones assembled together: that is why the passage in Acts is so important. What did they do? They were continually together. That was not a teaching. There was no time for it to be anybody’s teaching. That was the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the life of Christ being poured out through Peter’s message, drawing those folks together.
We can say, “We want to have a New Testament church.” What do you do to have a New Testament church? You have some teaching, some fellowship times, the Lord’s table, and a prayer meeting, and you have got it. Not so.
You have those things because they are fruit of the life of Christ. We are constrained by the love of God and the life of Christ in us to be together and to do those things.
The next thing I had was function in fellowship. Where is that word “function”? Who has used “function” in their vocabulary in the last week? In terms of our assembling together in the last month?
What is function? Function is right here in Romans 12:
For even as we have many members in one body,
and all the members have not the same office.
One body, members, functioning together in fellowship.
The greater context is that the gospel has come forth. We have been born again, new creatures in Christ, forgiven from our sins. Then Paul says that we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function.
I wonder if Paul was helped in his understanding of these examples of body-life because he traveled with Luke so much. Maybe he gained an understanding of how important the body was—that every part functioned. I just thought of that lately.
Everybody has a function. Everybody has something to do in the local assembly in relationship to other saints.
“Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice” has often been interpreted as doing big things, such as going out onto the mission field. Stephen tells the story of when he was first saved. He looked at a big map on the wall and considered the biggest thing he could do. As a young man, he was going to be a missionary and go to Mongolia, way out there.
But as time went on, he saw that the first and foremost calling we have is to be joints of supply in the house of God.
Something that has encouraged me over the years is that we have a number of saints among us who go out in the work. They minister Christ and go to other assemblies. When they come back, they do not hold themselves out as being special. They come in as brothers and sisters in the local assembly, under the headship of Christ, under God’s authority, and they function.
I think Christianity today has often reversed things. The local churches are called to support the work, send out missionaries, give money, and do this or that. There is nothing wrong with that; I am not belittling going out. But what is the right order?
The works are supposed to support the local church. What do they do? They get people born again. But what happens when you get born again? You are born into the body of Christ, and you bring that born-again life into the assembly to function.
The basic calling, the high calling, is to function in the body of Christ and be a joint of supply.
My little definition of functioning is this: be doing the things that God has put before you where you are.
I really struggle with that. I want to do something important. Get up each day and ask the Lord what your assignment is for Him that day. Many are running households, and many have demanding jobs, but put that before Him each day: “What would You have me do today?”
In the analogy of the human body, what if our more seemly parts did not function? What if the parts did not do what was before them in the Spirit?
Joints, ligaments, bands—I did not even know I had a tendon in my elbow until the last few weeks, and it has been driving me crazy. I have abused it some way over the years, and that little part, that joint and band, is not functioning right. It is really having an effect on the whole body.
I want to encourage each one of us today: in fellowship, be a joint of supply. Do not withdraw. Do not get off by yourself and hide. It is not right. It really is not.
The last thing I wanted to say was, “Function faithfully.” I think faithfulness is a challenge today. So many things go on. Faithfulness is not valued in our society.
I worked for the same company for a long time—twenty-seven or twenty-eight years. I thank God that I worked for that same company. I would have had a tough time if I had to jump around like young people do to all these different jobs. But faithfulness is just not valued.
The word translated “function” in Romans 12:4 has a connotation of faithfulness. It is prasso: to practice, perform repeatedly or habitually, to execute, to accomplish. It differs from performing a single act.
A single act can be going out to minister at Bowling Green. That is an act, and it is done. Faithfulness is in the house of God when we come back from Bowling Green, where we are joints of supply.
Faithfulness is God’s nature: faithful and true. How many people feel like they are faithful? Forget it. Nobody is faithful. God is faithful.
Read Galatians 5. We often talk about the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness. What is right in the middle of it? Faithfulness. Do you realize that faithfulness is the fruit of the Spirit?
So we are called to be faithful. God is faithful, and we are to function faithfully in fellowship in the local assembly—to be a joint of supply as the body of Christ is built. There is a testimony of the Lord Jesus until He comes.
That is pretty good. That is enough.
I encourage everyone to be thinking about some of these things and looking at these verses. I have just a summary to help organize your thoughts.
First, John’s burden in his Gospel was that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing you might have life in His name.
We must be born again. We are not just forgiven of our sins; we are born again to a living hope. We need to know and live out from the fact that we are born again. That new life—the life of Christ in us—is really the witness of being born again.
That born-again life is of a nature that demands fellowship: koinonia, a sharing in common. Not because we have an external requirement to be together, but because we are constrained by the love of God to be in fellowship.
Our fellowship is based on fellowship with the Father and with His Son. We share Christ—not our own thoughts, not our own ideas to help people with their problems, but we share Christ.
There is great resistance to fellowship. Our environment demands more bricks. We are way beyond less straw; we are well into no straw. But I believe one of our biggest resistances to fellowship is our self-life.
We do not want to be in fellowship. It is costly. Christians are cranky. They see things differently than I do. But we look for the life of Christ in one another and encourage one another in the faith.
The fruit of the Spirit is life and fellowship. We are to function, to be a joint of supply in the body of Christ, to be who you are where you are in the Spirit.
Faithfulness is the fruit of the Spirit. As we do these things, the body builds itself up in love, the testimony of Christ shines forth until He comes, and the bride is making herself ready.
I would like to leave us with one question. I am not saying this to everybody else. I am saying it just as much to myself.
Each one of us needs to ask: Are our lives bearing the fruit of the Spirit? Are we functioning faithfully in fellowship?
God’s calling on us is to function faithfully in fellowship.
Lord, we thank You for this new life that You have given us. We believe You have called us out of darkness into Your light. We witness that we have received the Holy Spirit as a pledge of our inheritance.
Lord, we know that we are new creatures inside, turned around. Forgive us for holding back and denying You fellowship. Lord, we want to be those who fellowship with You and fellowship Your life, Your Spirit, with one another.
Grant us grace to deny ourselves and function faithfully where You have called us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.