RIGHT FELLOWSHIP
In the film The Lord of the Rings there is a scene where Frodo has brought the One Ring to Rivendell, to the Council of Elrond the elf-lord. The Council decides that a Fellowship should accompany Frodo and do all within their power to see that the mission is accomplished. The rest of the film is about that Fellowship on the journey together. Now that is only a film but it speaks a Biblical truth – we were not created to be alone. God never intended for man to be alone and he never intended for His people to be alone. Do you remember the TV programme ‘Thirty Something?’ Did you not wish you had a bunch of friends like that? Friends who shared the joys, the sorrows, the highs and lows of life with you? Why is it that our hearts yearn for such deep relationships with other people? The Bible calls such relationship ‘Fellowship.’ Yet, to be honest, there is no word so misunderstood in the Christian church today as ‘Fellowship.’ Not only is it misunderstood but it is also undervalued. Why? Well I believe the answer is in the fact that too few people have ever experienced a significant enduring fellowship with other believers.
Today, in our society and in our churches, people have acquaintances. There is little intimacy in relationships amongst Christian believers. There is little if any real trust. There is a serious lack of commitment to building fellowship. There is also a lack of loyalty and faithfulness to fellowship with other believers. So this morning in our series on how people grow I want to address the issue of Right Fellowship.
THE FOUNDATION.
Let me begin by saying that without a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ you cannot have true, Biblical fellowship with anyone else. Christian fellowship is founded on the fact that two or more individuals are one in Christ Jesus. Without Christ they may be friends, they may like each other, they may sing his praise, read his Word but without Christ in their hearts there is no fellowship. So the foundation is Jesus Christ.
Christ Jesus is also our model for fellowship, especially his relationship with his disciples. When we look at the gospels we encounter Jesus eating and drinking with his disciples. We see him walking with them and discussing things with them, Luke 24.13-45.
In Matthew 26.38 we see him sharing the painful experience of Gethsemane with them.
Matthew 13.34-52 he shared insights with his disciples that were not disclosed with others not in that inner circle.
John 13.1-17 we see Christ humbling himself in offering acts of tender care to his disciples. He also challenged them to do as he did so that they might grow spiritually.
John 14 – we encounter him offering his disciples emotional support, repeatedly assuring them that there was no need for fear and demonstrating genuine concern for their welfare.
Luke 19.18-27 he invited and answered their questions.
You see if we read the gospels with a focus on Jesus and his relationship, fellowship with his disciples it becomes a life changing experience. Listen to these words of Jesus from John 15.13-16 Read.
When I look at Jesus’ relationship with his disciples I believe there are five key elements that form the basis of their fellowship.
LOVE.
Look for a moment at Matthew 9.10-13. In this incident Jesus accepts that Matthew is a sinner but it does not stop him loving Matthew. Love in fellowship is grounded in reality. It is not a blind love, it does not ignore sin or the fact that we are fallen human beings. Jesus’ fellowship with his disciples was based on unconditional love. His love for them meant that he was committed to them and to their welfare. His love was given freely and without favour. Let me ask you a question: Do you think Jesus loved Judas Iscariot? I believe he did. I believe that he gave Judas the same love and time that he gave the other disciples. How do I know that? When he speaks of one of them betraying him they could not single anyone out. So love, unconditional love, committed love is a key element in fellowship.
HONESTY
Turn to Mark 8.33 read. Jesus’ desire for Peter’s spiritual growth required honesty. Jesus confronted Peter’s illusion about himself with the truth about him. Jesus could not ignore the things he saw in the disciples – on one occasion he rebukes them for their lack of faith during a storm. On another he rebukes them for the slowness of their minds in understanding. On one occasion he pointed out the reality of Peter’s loyalty – you will deny me thrice.
Fellowship requires honesty with each other and before each other. It challenges our self-perceptions and our self-illusions. You see just as the retina of the human eye has a blind spot so we all have spiritual blind spots. Honesty in fellowship helps us see those blind spots. There are sins I could not or would not possible see in my life without other Christians pointing them out to me. Yet honesty requires support to balance the confrontation. Confrontation without support will never be experienced as love. But support without confrontation is insipid love and will only result in spiritual death.
INTIMACY
Read Matthew 26.36.46. Is this not one of the most intimate moments between Jesus and these three disciples? He is about to be arrested and led away to his crucifixion and here we encounter him inviting three disciples to watch and pray with him. Listen to me here. Jesus and his Father are one. His relationship with his Father was, is perfect. Yet he took three disciples with him to watch and pray at this crucial moment in his earthly life. He lacked nothing as the Son of God and yet at this moment in his life he invited these three men to fellowship at the most deep level. He tells them his soul is bursting within him, watch and pray with me. Share this experience with me.
Intimacy in a fellowship comes from love and honesty. Intimacy is at the level of our souls, our spirits. It is not sharing and exchanging information. It is not a theological debate. It is the movement from the surface, from the superficial to a deeper level of trust, of love and honesty. It moves from the external things to the internal things. It comes about as we share our experience of God – that is not the same as discussing theology or the sermon. It is as we share God in our lives as individuals and as a body of believers. It does not happen over night. The intimacy between Christ and his disciples took three years, and even then they failed him at the last. Yet he did not break fellowship with them – but restored them to an even deeper level of intimacy after the resurrection.
MUTUALITY
Fellowship is not all about giving and it is not all about getting either. It is about giving and receiving. Isn’t it interesting that when Jesus called the disciples to follow him he called them to be his friends and not just followers. He said to them ‘I call you friends…’ In our fellowship with one another there must be mutuality. There must be both giving and receiving. The rhythm of giving and receiving should over time balance out. But let me say this to you – mutuality does not mean equality. What Jesus offered the disciples in fellowship was intrinsically different to what they offered him. The same will be true in our fellowship with one another. There will be, there has to be, leaders. There has to be those who teach, who guide, who share wisdom but also they need support, love, honesty and intimacy. You know one of the most profound spiritual experiences of my life here at HT was one night after an evening service someone sat down beside me and said ‘you pray for us and with us all the time, let me pray with and for you now.’ I want you to know I went home and cried after that – it was the first time anyone had ever done that for me and at that moment God spoke into my heart that I was not just the pastor of this fellowship but part of this fellowship. It was a profound moment for me in my walk with God. Mutuality – no one is excluded from it.
ACCOMPANIMENT
This is the last of the five elements I want to share with you this morning. I think it is significant that when Jesus sent out the 70 disciples he sent them out two by two. He never sent any of his disciples on their own to do anything. He sent them in two’s or three’s. When God created mankind he created both male and female. He said in Genesis that it ‘is not good for man to be alone.’ Throughout Scripture we read of people accompanying one another in the tasks laid before them by God. Moses and Aaron, Ruth and Naomi, David and Jonathon, Paul and Timothy etc. An Accompanist in music is not there to lead, nor to get in the way but to stay in close supportive contact with the one he or she is accompanying. A key element in fellowship is to actually accompany one another in this journey of faith in Christ to the Promised Land – heaven. It is not about leading. It is not about getting ahead. It is not about building my own kingdom but accompanying others on the journey. Jesus’ first words to the disciples ‘follow me.’ ‘Follow me’ implies a journey. ‘Follow me’ also implies a journey together and not one travelled alone. Jesus did not call them to a journey on their own but one together with him and the other disciples.
CONCLUSION
These are five key elements to the building of a Christian fellowship – love, honesty, intimacy, mutuality and accompaniment. Let me finish with a word of warning from Hebrews 10.25 read. The NT knows nothing of a solo-christian. It knows no such thing as ‘private faith.’ We need each other. Church is not a place of perfect people praising God. It is where we take seriously our sin and failures and where we learn of God’s grace and minister that grace to one another. Fellowship begins with Christ Jesus. It is all about our relationship with Christ Jesus. It is all about building one another up in Christ Jesus. Ultimately is about being Christ to one another.
Amen.
