Untitled Sermon

The relationship with God, disrupted by sin yet established through Jesus Christ, which provides the only proper basis for true human fellowship. God’s desire for fellowship with humanity is made known through his calling of a people to be his own and to reflect his holiness and love.

Fellowship, with God

God’s fellowship with his people is shown by his presence

God’s presence with Israel

Exodus 33:14 NASB95

And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Leviticus 26:12 NASB95

‘I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

Isaiah 63:9 NASB95

In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.

Haggai 1:13 NASB95

Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke by the commission of the Lord to the people saying, “ ‘I am with you,’ declares the Lord.”

God’s presence in the tabernacle

Exodus 25:8 NASB95

“Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them.

Exodus 29:45–46 NASB95

“I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. “They shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am the Lord their God.

Exodus 40:34–36 NASB95

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out;

Leviticus 26:11 NASB95

‘Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you.

Deuteronomy 12:11 NASB95

then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the Lord.

God’s presence in the temple

1 Kings 6:12–13 NASB95

“Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My ordinances and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out My word with you which I spoke to David your father. “I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”

1 Kings 8:29 NASB95

that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place.

2 Chronicles 7:1–2 NASB95

Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. The priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house.

Isaiah 6:1 NASB95

In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.

God’s presence in the new Jerusalem

Ezekiel 37:26–28 NASB95

“I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. “My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. “And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.” ’ ”

Ezekiel 43:4–7 NASB95

And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. Then I heard one speaking to me from the house, while a man was standing beside me. He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by the corpses of their kings when they die,

Ezekiel 48:35 NASB95

“The city shall be 18,000 cubits round about; and the name of the city from that day shall be, ‘The Lord is there.’ ”

Zechariah 2:10–13 NASB95

“Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” declares the Lord. “Many nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day and will become My people. Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. “The Lord will possess Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. “Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord; for He is aroused from His holy habitation.”

Revelation 21:3 NASB95

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,

The church’s fellowship with God

Fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit

John 14:7 NASB95

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”

John 14:16–17 NASB95

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

John 14:23 NASB95

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.

Fellowship is made possible through Jesus Christ

Romans 5:10 NASB95

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

2 Corinthians 5:18–19 NASB95

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Ephesians 2:18–19 NASB95

for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,

Colossians 1:20–22 NASB95

and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—

Hebrews 10:19–22 NASB95

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Fellowship with Jesus Christ

Matthew 28:20 NASB95

teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

John 15:4–5 NASB95

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Romans 6:4–5 NASB95

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

1 Corinthians 1:9 NASB95

God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 10:15–16 NASB95

I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?

Philippians 3:10 NASB95

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

Fellowship with God is inseparable from fellowship with one another

Matthew 18:20 NASB95

“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

Mark 9:37 NASB95

“Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”

John 17:21 NASB95

that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

2 Corinthians 13:11 NASB95

Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

1 John 1:3 NASB95

what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

The demands of fellowship with God

Holiness

Exodus 34:12–14 NASB95

“Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. “But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim —for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God—

Leviticus 20:26 NASB95

‘Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.

Ezra 6:21 NASB95

The sons of Israel who returned from exile and all those who had separated themselves from the impurity of the nations of the land to join them, to seek the Lord God of Israel, ate the Passover.

1 Corinthians 5:11 NASB95

But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

2 Corinthians 6:14–18 NASB95

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.

Ephesians 5:8–11 NASB95

for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;

James 4:4 NASB95

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Obedience to God’s will

Isaiah 57:15 NASB95

For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.

Matthew 12:49–50 NASB95

And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! “For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

John 14:21 NASB95

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

1 John 3:24 NASB95

The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

Sin separates people from fellowship with God

Genesis 3:8 NASB95

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Isaiah 59:2 NASB95

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

Ezekiel 39:23 NASB95

“The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword.

1 John 1:5–6 NASB95

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

Examples of fellowship with God

Genesis 5:22 NASB95

Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 6:9 NASB95

These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.

2 Chronicles 20:7 NASB95

“Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?

Moses:

Exodus 33:11 NASB95

Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Numbers 12:3 NASB95

(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)

Joshua 1:9 NASB95

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Malachi 2:6 NASB95

“True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity.