Fellowship with God and Each Other, 1 John 1:2-3
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been telling you of the passion that God has recently ignited in my heart to faithfully and fully engage in the work of protecting the sweet spirit of fellowship that God has created among us within the Petaluma Valley Family and also among our extended family through the fellowship we share with the 14 churches of City Ministries and also to urge and equip you to join me in this grand cause. And, to that end, we’ve now identified 5 very specific action steps that each of us can do to nurture and protect and strengthen our fellowship.
We looked, first, at 1 Thessalonians 2 where we identified four actions steps:
The first is to be gentle in all our dealings with one another because a gentle spirit nurtures fellowship.
The second is to share our lives with one another. That means letting each other in not only on the wonderful things that are going on in our lives but also on our struggles. When we share our hardships and heartbreaks with one another we’re not burdening each other, we’re functioning the way that God designed the church to function. We’re making it possible to experience real fellowship.
The third action step is to pay serious attention to the purity of our lives. When we invite sin into our lives, we inevitably bring that sin with us into the corporate life of the church. And that’s never a good thing because sin is a fellowship breaker. Holiness is a fellowship builder.
The fourth action step that we identified is to encourage each other to live the lives to which God has called us. Practically speaking, that means that every time we come to church…whether it’s for a large group experience like this or a small group experience…we come with the specific intent not only of getting a blessing out of the time we have together, but of being a blessing to someone else. It means that we come to church looking for opportunities to encourage someone else to keep pressing in and keep pressing on. And it also means that when we leave church and reflect on the experience the primary question that we need to ask is not, “How did Pastor Tom do, today,” or “How did the worship team do, today,” but rather, “How did I do, today?” “Did I encourage someone, today?”
Then, last week, we focused on 2 different passages of scripture: Ephesians 4:29 and 1 Peter 2:9. And in weaving those two passages together we identified a fifth action step that we can take to protect and strengthen our fellowship. It’s an action step that is rooted in the recognition that because our relationships are greatly influenced by the way we talk to one another, we need to carefully monitor our conversations. To that end, we identified this standard as the goal toward which we want to strive in every conversation that we have with each other: I want to speak only those things that give grace to God’s people and glory to God. I want people to receive my words as gifts of grace and I want God to receive my words as gifts of praise to His glory. What a blessing to be a part of a church family filled with that kind of conversation!
Now, obviously, giving this level of attention to our church family relationships is going to take some effort. This does not come easily or naturally. It’s going to take discipline. In fact, it’s going to take the kind of discipline that is sustained by focus and genuine passion. And, as I’ve recently told you, the spark that ignited in me this passionate focus on protecting our fellowship occurred while I was attending a Prayer Conference hosted by my friend Rick Astle in South Carolina a couple of weeks ago. As we moved around Myrtle Beach he pointed repeatedly to churches that had recently experienced a fellowship shattering split. As a result friends that had been in the same church for years and years are no longer speaking to one another and pastors of neighboring churches want nothing to do with one another. And as I’ve shared those stories with you these past couple of weeks, I am pleased to say that, by far, the most common reaction that you have shared with me has been: “How can that happen?” How is it possible that Christians could treat one another like that?
And the reason that reaction pleases me is because it tells me that you recognize instantaneously that there is nothing remotely Christian in that kind of behavior. God is not glorified when we choose to break fellowship with other Christians over petty disagreements. We don’t show God to be the great and awesome God that He is when we destroy the unity of the body. And I’m so pleased to know that you get that. But all of that still leaves unanswered the question that you raised in response to these sad stories, namely, “How can that happen?” So, this morning, I want to try to answer that question because, if we answer it correctly we will take another step in the direction of keeping our fellowship strong.
Now, as we try to answer this question of how it is possible that Christians would be willing to break fellowship with one another let’s begin by defining the word, “fellowship.” What exactly is this thing called, “fellowship?” In our English Bibles, the word “fellowship” translates the Greek word, “koinonia,” and it means, “to have in common,” or “to share.” So, “fellowship,” describes that special kind of relationship that exists between people who share common interests, common values and common affections. When people are pursuing the same goals, and they share the same priorities and they love the same things…fellowship happens.
And now that we know what fellowship is, it’s easy to see it as a real treasure. What a blessing to go through life in relationships with people who are pursuing the same goals and have embraced the same priorities and are inspired by the affections. Folks, when you find yourself in a relationship like that you protect it as the treasure that it is. It’s no wonder, then, that in our first glimpses into the life of the newly formed church, we see them focusing their attention…in fact, Acts 2:42 specifically says that they were “devoted” to just 4 things and one of them was, “the fellowship.” From the moment the church was born, God prompted His people to nurture and protect, “the fellowship.”
Now, while everything I’ve said about fellowship thus far is true, there’s still one very significant element of this discussion that we’ve not yet addressed. We need to answer this question: What is it about the fellowship shared between Christians that is distinct from other expressions of fellowship. In other words, in what way is Christian fellowship distinct from the fellowship shared between fellow Marines, or the fellowship shared between fellow Democrats, or the fellowship shared between fellow Republicans or the fellowship shared between fellow club members? What is it that distinguishes Christian fellowship from all other kinds of fellowship?
I think the best answer to that question is found in 1 John 1:2-3 where John writes the following:
“The life appeared…” He’s talking there about Jesus.
“The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.” So, he’s saying, “We have seen Jesus with our own eyes. And our testimony to you is that Jesus is the living embodiment of eternal life. To see Jesus, is to see eternal life. And to experience Jesus is to experience eternal life.”
Verse 3: “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.” In other words, “The reason we’re telling you about Jesus is because we want you to have fellowship with us. We want to be in fellowship with you and we want you to be in fellowship with us. And the reason that you have to know about Jesus in order to experience the fellowship that we share as brothers and sisters in Christ is this…”
“(And) our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” In other words, “The reason that we can experience fellowship with each other is precisely because we are also in fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Our fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus, fuels our fellowship with each other. We could not maintain fellowship with one another if we broke fellowship with the Father and with Jesus because it is the vertical fellowship that we maintain with the Father and with Jesus that gives birth to and sustains the horizontal fellowship that we enjoy with one another. So, our primary fellowship is with the Father and with Jesus. The fellowship we enjoy with one another is sweet…and it’s wonderful…and it’s worth protecting…but it’s secondary. Break the primary experience of fellowship with the Father and with Jesus and the secondary experience of fellowship with each other is impossible.”
–You cannot maintain Christian fellowship in the church by holding on to cherished traditions. It doesn’t work.
–You cannot maintain Christian fellowship in the church by wielding power and forging alliances that allow you to always get your way. It doesn’t work.
–You cannot maintain Christian fellowship in the church by blasting through pastors until you finally find one that you can control. It doesn’t work.
–You cannot maintain Christian fellowship in the church by fierce allegiance to a particular denomination or to no denomination. It doesn’t work.
–You cannot maintain Christian fellowship in the church through an unwavering commitment to one particular style of church music or one particular version of the Bible. It doesn’t work.
There is only one source capable of birthing and sustaining genuinely Christian fellowship with one another and that is by maintaining unwavering fellowship with the Father and with Jesus. Break the primary experience of fellowship with the Father and with Jesus and the secondary experience of fellowship with each other is impossible.
Now, we can answer our original question. How is it possible for Christians to break fellowship with other Christians? Easy. They’ve already broken fellowship with the Father and Jesus.
Do you remember our basic definition of fellowship? Fellowship is the result of sharing significant things in common. Fellowship is what happens between people who pursue the same goals, share the same priorities and love the same things. So, to have fellowship with the Father and His Son is to pursue the goals that God pursues and be guided by the priorities that guide God and love the things that God loves. And as we’ve seen over and over again this year, God is focused like a laser beam on His glory. Everything He has done from the beginning and everything that He is doing now is done toward the goal of magnifying His glory. That’s what He’s pursuing. That’s His priority. That’s what He loves. How does breaking fellowship with God’s people magnify His glory? It doesn’t. That’s why I can say unequivocally that when you find Christians who are breaking fellowship with other Christians I guarantee you that you will also find Christians who are pursuing goals that God is not pursuing, acting out of priorities that are not priorities to God and loving things that God detests. The very things that characterize and define fellowship are no longer present in their relationship with God. And because they’ve already broken fellowship with God, breaking fellowship with God’s people is easy.
So, here’s the takeaway. Here’s the new action step we want to add to our previous list of 5.
The primary way to strengthen our fellowship with one another is to maintain our primary fellowship with God.
When our fellowship is threatened, it’s time to draw closer to God.
When our fellowship is weakening, it’s time to draw closer to God.
The primary way to strengthen our fellowship with one another is to maintain our primary fellowship with God.
Several years ago I attended a wedding, one part of which remains vivid in my mind to this day. Holding a necklace in front of the couple the pastor formed the chain into the shape of a triangle and told them to see in the triangle a picture of their relationship with each of them standing at opposite corners at the bottom of the triangle and God standing at the top point of the triangle.
Then, he told them that the best way to grow closer to one another was to passionately pursue the goal of growing closer to God, because in the process of growing closer to God they would be constantly growing closer to one another. It was a beautiful picture of Christian marriage. And it’s an equally beautiful picture of our fellowship.
I love potluck suppers after church on Sunday and BBQ ribs with the men on Tuesday nights. But that’s not the heart of our fellowship. That’s not what draws us together and keeps us strong.
I have a very simple prayer for the Petaluma Valley Family. To the glory of God, I pray that we will always remember that our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Consequently, the primary way to strengthen our fellowship with one another is to maintain our primary fellowship with God.
