FAITHFUL FELLOWSHIP
PHILIPPIANS 1:5
10/25/94
In 1765 John Fawcett was called to pastor a very small congregation in Wainsgate England. For seven years he labored at building up this small work. But because of the size of the congregation and the fact that they were all poor his salary was so meager that he was just barely able to provide his wife and himself with the basic necessities of life. Though the people were poor what they lacked in finances they made up for with their faithfulness and warm fellowship.
Then Dr. Fawcett received a call from a much larger church in London. After a lengthy time of consideration he and his wife decided to accept the call to London. As their few possessions were being loader onto a wagon many of his parishioners came to say good-bye, and ask if he would reconsider leaving.
Touch by this great outpouring of love his wife and he began to cry. Finally Mrs. Fawcett exclaimed, "O John, I just can’t bare it. They need us so badly here." God has spoken to my heart too!" he said, "Tell them to unload the wagon! We cannot break these wonderful ties of fellowship."
This experience inspired Fawcett to write a hymn, which opened with the following words, "Blest be the tie the binds our hearts in Christian love! The fellowship of kindered mind is like to that above."
Out of that example of Christian fellowship, came to us one of our most best loved and frequently sung hymns. Today I would like to speak of the fellowship that we all have or the fellowship we should have as brothers and sisters in Christ. Fellowship is perhaps one of the most widely used words among Christian’s yet many of us do not understand what exactly it is we are to have fellowship. Most of us when we think of fellowship we think of going downstairs and eating. Well while that it a type of fellowship, our Christian fellowship needs to go much deeper then that.
Today’s passage is again from the book of Philippians, now while we will be looking only at verse 5 of chapter one we need to read verse 3 and 4, to get the context of the verse. Please turn with me there as we read the words of Paul,
"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,"
As we discussed a within the last couple weeks, Paul thanks God for the Christians at Philippi, he prays for them, not just once in awhile, but in every prayer, and the thought of them brings joy to Paul, even though his circumstances, that of being in jail are not the best. In verse 5 Paul is states one of the reasons he is so thankful for these people, because of the fellowship they share with him, the fellowship of the gospel.
As I stated earlier the word fellowship really is over used in our culture. We us it in ways that it was not intended. As we see Paul speak of fellowship here I believe we really need to understand the fellowship we who have trusted in Christ as our saviour, have with one another. I would like to begin by giving to you the definition of fellowship.
In Scripture fellowship means sharing something in common. It denotes joint participation in something, a common interest. The Greek word translated fellowship is also translated communion in other places in scripture. It is something which is shared. The Greek word translated fellowship comes for the root word meaning "common". This word in ancient times was also used to denote the marriage bond.
So the word as used in scripture does not mean getting together to eat, but something much deeper then that. And today I would like to share with you that which we as Christians share or have in common with each other. The fellowship spoken of in the scripture goes far beyond denominations, these fellowships, or common interest our for all who have called upon the Lord, be they baptist, Pentecostal, Christian Alliance, or what have you. I would be so bold to say that in our society in our culture we have far removed ourselves from the fellowship spoken of in the Bible.
Within Scripture we see many different fellowships which the believers share in. The first I would like to point out is our fellowship with the Father. 1 John 1:3 reads;
"that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ."
Here see John point out to us that we have a fellowship with the Father. That is to say the believers has in common with one another, the Father. All believers are children of God. And as children we should work together in pleasing our Father. The Father needs to be our common interest, He needs to be our common focus. You would never believe that all Christians have the same Father just by looking at them and watching how they act. Yet John tells us, that He is our common interest. We are bond to Him.
Churches and people get so caught up in focusing on our differences instead of what we have in common, instead of what our fellowship should be. No I am not saying we should ignore false teachings and heresy for the sake of fellowship, but I am saying we as the body of Christ, both within this Church, and those from other Churches should focus on the fellowship in which we share, instead of all the areas where we have separation.
Another area of fellowship mentioned in Scripture is the of the fellowship of the Son. 1 Cor. 1:9 reads;
"God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
So while Scripture speaks of the fellowship we have with the Father, it also speaks of the fellowship we have with the Son. Again we are to have the Lord Jesus Christ as our common interest. In fact without fellowship with the Son, there can be no fellowship with the Father. Again I think of the body of Christ and how we are missing the fact the Jesus is our common interest. Not weather we sing praise songs in church, not weather we celebrate the Lord’s supper every Sunday or every quarter, not whether we focus on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, not whether we are pre-trib, mid-trib, or post trib, or no trib. But our focus, our fellowship is in the work and person of Jesus Christ. He is our common interest. The common interest between all believers. And again, we as a church, and we as part of the universal body of Jesus Christ need to begin to see that it is our fellowship in Christ that really matters.
Whether some of you realized or not Cyprain and his wife come from Pentecostal church in Kenya. But not once during the week did we get into a discussion concerning the differences between the Pentecostal tradition and the baptist tradition. Because it did not matter to him, and it did not matter to me. We have a fellowship in Jesus Christ. He was what we had in common, he was our common interest, Jesus Christ and how to tell others about His wonderful salvation. By our shared fellowship in Christ, we both have fellowship with the Father and are brothers in Christ.
The scripture also tells of the fellowship of the Spirit. Paul speaks of it in the letter to the Philippians, chapter 2 verse 1;
"Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy,"
Paul also makes mention of this in 2 Cor. 13:14, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen."
That word communion is also can be translated Fellowship. But here see that we have fellowship with triune God of the Bible. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We are to have as a common interest, the whole of God. Not just the Father, not just the Son, and not the just the Holy Spirit. Thought each person of the God head plays a different role in our Salvation, none should be placed over the other. I think of different tradition that emphases the Father, those the emphases the Son, and still others emphases the Holy Spirit. Yet they are all to be emphasized in our life, and we are to have fellowship with each one as they are all God.
While we have a responsibility to have fellowship with God, as seen in the persons of the Father Son and Holy Spirit we also have the fellowship of ministering to one another. Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 8:4;
"imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints."
I would just like to read into this verse the meaning of fellowship; "the common interest of ministering to the saints", "the joint participation of ministering to the saints". "the common activity of ministering to the saints." You see it just not one persons job of ministering to the saints. It is not just the pastors job, it is not just the deacons job, or the trustees job, it is all of our job to minister to one another. The word minister by the way means to serve. We are all to serve one another. As we get more into the book of Philippians we will see this theme even more clearly.
May I just say that I am very pleased at the response that came from the church for the Christmas packages we are sending to our missionaries. That was an excellent example of the fellowship of ministering to the saints. I am sure that our missionaries will be very grateful for the gift. I also want to thank Pam for the work that she put into bring this all about. I am also well pleased at your response to the love offering for the work of Cyprian and Jayne. The offering was close to $200 dollars. Again a great example of the fellowship of ministering to the saints. I just challenge you to continue in that fellowship. For God is indeed worshipped by it.
Another fellowship or common interest which we all share is the fellowship of suffering with Christ. Paul write of this in his letter to the saints in Philippi. In chapter 3:10;
"that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,"
I just want to touch on this briefly as we have dealt with it in previous sermons. Just as we have fellowship with Christ in eternal life we also have fellowship in the suffering of Christ. Being a Christian does not make your life free from troubles, and persecution, this is quite clear when we look at the life of Paul. The word of God promises us that we will suffer for our faith. But just as with Paul, we will find joy in it all.
Now scripture speaks of many other fellowships or common interest, I will just touch on a couple here due to time. There is the fellowship of the blood and body of Jesus Christ. The same body and
blood which save us from our sin, 1 Cor. 10:16;
"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?"
Those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus have as a common interest the body and blood of our Lord. As it is by the body and blood of Christ that all Christian fellowship is possible.
We have the fellowship of faith, as our faith is a common faith in Jesus Christ. There is the fellowship of grace, as all Christian fellowship has it’s beginnings in God, Christian fellowship cannot be man-made but flows from God to man. We have the fellowship of Love, love for God and Love for one another. We have the fellowship of warfare. Which is to say that all Christian have a common enemy and that enemy is the devil himself, who scripture states that the "devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour". We have a fellowship of prayer and thanksgiving, this we saw two weeks ago in the example given to us by Paul and Philippians.
And the final fellowship I wish to mention today is the fellowship Paul mentions in our passage today. That is the fellowship we all share in the work of the gospel.
We all need to have a common interest in seeing the others hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. I would like to point out just how the Philippians shared in the work. How by these things Paul was able to say, he thanked God for their fellowship in the gospel.
First see their fellowship in the gospel through their prayers. Paul write in verse 19, chapter 1;
"For I know that this will turn out for my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,"
Paul speaks of the fact that they were praying for him. Paul here is referring not to his spiritual salvation but to his being released from prison. But the point to made is that the Philippian saints were praying for Paul. I discussed prayer at length two weeks ago, but I feel the I cannot say enough about the importance of prayer.
We need to share in the fellowship of the gospel through our prayers. We need to be praying for this church, this community, our missionaries, everywhere where the gospel is preached we need join in the fellowship with our prayers just as they did in Philippi.
They also shared in the fellowship of the gospel by their gifts. In Phil 4:16 Paul makes mention of these gifts;
"For even in Thessalonica (thess-a-la-nic-a) you sent aid once and again for my necessities."
The saints in Philippi supported Paul with the fiances that his work could continue. Mush like we do with our gifts to our missionaries. May I just add that being a home missionary myself I know first hand of the importance of having people who share in the fellowship of the gospel through gifts and offerings. Apart for people sharing in the fellowship of the gospel in this way there would be no missionaries.
This church supports 5 missionaries which is more then a lot of church much bigger then us support. So when you place your offering in the plate know that you are sharing in the fellowship of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The people of Philippi also shared in the fellowship of the gospel by their example. In fact the saints at Philippi are still sharing in the fellowship of the gospel through their example today. Paul could point to them as living proof of the power of God. Look at how they live, look at how they give to the furtherance of the gospel. And I stand here today and say to you look at their example, look at the proof of the power of God.
So we too should be in fellowship of the gospel through our example. People should be able to look at us and say, There is your prove of the living power of God. We should be to others as an example just as the Philippians are and example to us.
To apply this sermons to our live let us first realize that Christian fellowship is something much more then picnics and dinners. Christian fellowship a would say is life style. It is a lifestyle that shows that God, in all three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is our common interest. It is a lifestyle that shows we care for one another, a life style that shows we love one another, and not just those who go by the name baptist, but all Christians, all mankind. It is a lifestyle that shows itself to be concerned with spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. That good news that He died for our sins, and rose from the dead giving those who believe in Him eternal life.
And when we realize that Christian fellowship is all these things let us go and practice it.
SHALL WE PRAY
