Building A Church Of Thessalonica For The 21st Century | Part 5 | True Fellowship | Dr. Madana Kumar Series

Building a Church of Thessalonica for the 21st century | Part 5 | True Fellowship

This is Part 5 of the Series of studies on 1 & 2 Thessalonians

For an Audio/ video version of this please visit here https://youtu.be/DD6334VZSS0

Good morning. We will continue our study of the epistles to Thessalonians today.

Till now, we have studied several things about the church of Thessalonica

• God orchestrated events in Paul’s ministry journey to establish the church at a pagan place like Thessalonica

• The church at Thessalonica thrived despite persecution and threats and went on to become a model church.

• One of the key reasons for their success as a church was their hope of resurrection and the anticipation of Jesus’ second coming.

• In preparation for His second coming we can learn several lessons on how to become a true church, namely

o True Transformation

o True Ministry

o True Fellowship

o True Evangelism

• True Transformation is a cycle of hearing and accepting the gospel, imitating Christ, setting an example and then sharing the gospel.

• True Ministry happens when you focus on building the faith of the congregation through Bold and Courageous Preaching and teaching. Bold preaching is balance of Comforting, Exhortation and Charging.

In this fifth part of the series, we will look into the third pillar of True church, namely True Fellowship.

One fact that sets Christianity apart is the fact that it is not a solitary religion. Paul uses the analogy of Christians being parts of a body in Romans 12:4-5 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. The parts of a body cannot function by themselves but need to work together for the body to function. Christians are designed to build, nurture, worship as a community. The term “one another” is used more than 50 times in the New Testament.

What makes a community? What differentiates a community from a worldly institution?

Let us look at the pictures in the slide. What is common between all of them? All of them are declared as fraudsters by law. But despite the serious frauds committed by them through the companies that they set up; their personal wealth is intact. What enables them to keep their personal wealth safe, even though they own thousands of crores of rupees (billions) to their employees, vendors etc? The secret is in the law that protects them. If you look at the companies they have set up (or any other company for that matter), it will have a three letter suffix like Ltd., in India or LLC or LLP in the west. What is the meaning of these three letters? Ltd stands for Limited. LLC stands for Limited Liability Company etc. They are incorporated as institutions with limited liability. What does the limited liability clause mean? It gives the investors protection from any loss happening because of their business decisions. It limits the investors liability only to the extent of money that they have actually invested in the company. We cannot touch their personal wealth, beyond their committed investment in the company. You will actually see this limited liability clause in several documents that you get on a daily basis. This is what is referred to as the small print. The warranty card that you get with your product comes with several limited liability clauses. The insurance policy that you take out comes with many limited liability clauses. The medical test report comes with a limited liability clause. The doctor’s diagnosis comes with a limited liability clause. I can go on... The message is clear. The world operates on a limited liability clause. There is literally nothing that comes without a limited liability clause.

This is where the church should differ. The church was not built on a limited liability clause. The church is a body of Christ. When Christ died on the cross, and asked His father to “forgive them for they do not know what they are doing,” He was not going by the limited liability clause. He was pouring out the unconditional love of God on all of humankind. This is what is expected out of a Christian community. The willingness to drop the limited liability towards each other and embrace the mentality of unlimited liability towards each other. That is what True fellowship is. True Fellowship is when members of the community go by the unlimited liability clause when it comes to our interactions with other members of the community.

How do we demonstrate True Fellowship with unlimited liability? Paul offers some suggestions in his letter to the Thessalonians.

1 Thess 5: 11-15 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. 12 And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. 15 See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.