Introduction

Welcome back church! Today we’re going to jump into week 3 of our 4 week sermon series, Known. As we get started I want to reiterate that to know and be known are two of our deepest needs as relational beings. We were made for life-giving relationships and fellowship with one another. The communal nature of our faith wasn’t an accident, in fact, it was designed this way with great intention and purpose. We are better together, and that’s the way God intended it!

Theologian and author J.I. Packer says it like this; “The Greek word for fellowship 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 common life of the body of Christ.

Packer describes fellowship as a mutual sharing where give and take is commonplace. He also asserts that folks who are not in fellowship with the Father are in no place to share the realities of fellowship with others. It’s important to understand the vertical nature of fellowship (with God) before we can effectively engage in the horizontal nature of fellowship (with others).

In weeks one and two we dove head first into the vertical nature of fellowship. We learned that in Jesus we are fully known, fully loved, and fully redeemed. We learned that God the Father has unlimited cosmic understanding of all things and that He alone knows what’s best for us. Through God we are wonderfully made with divine purpose and calling.

And this week we are going to learn more about the horizontal nature of our divine purpose and calling...into community and fellowship with others. We are truly better together. We were made for kingdom connections.

We were made for life-giving relationships and fellowship with one another. The communal nature of our faith wasn’t an accident, in fact, it was designed this way with great intention and purpose. We are better together, and that’s the way God intended it!

Main Teaching

Our main passage for the day highlights both the vertical and horizontal nature of our fellowship. 1 Peter 2:4-5 says; “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

The apostle Peter addresses the vertical relationship with God first, “the living stone,” and moves onto its horizontal implications second, “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.”

Our fellowship flows out of our collective relationship with God through Christ. Our spiritual “houses,” or local churches, are sacred gatherings where we, the living stones, are being built up and put together with divine intention and direction.

One of the keys to understanding the whole of fellowship is found at the hands of the master builder Himself. The one in and through whom this whole enterprise flows… Jesus.

Built by the Master

The same Peter who gave us our main verse for the day was also one of the primary characters in one of the most important passages found in the New Testament. That passage comes from the gospel of Matthew;

Read Matthew 16:18

“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

Here Christ so clearly states, for the first time, “I will build my church ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium