Fellowship

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”