Sermon Tone Analysis

A question is often asked...

Why did God create us?

Why are we here?"

The short answer to the question is this “for His pleasure.”

Being created for God’s pleasure does not mean humanity was made to entertain God or provide Him with amusement.

God is a creative Being, and it gives Him pleasure to create.

God is a personal Being, and it gives Him pleasure to have other beings He can have a genuine relationship with.

Being made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27), human beings have then the ability to know God and therefore love Him, worship Him, serve Him, and fellowship with Him.

God did not create human beings because He needed them.

As God, He needs nothing.

In all eternity past, He felt no loneliness, so He was not looking for a “friend.”

He loves us, but this is not the same as needing us.

God doesn't need to have fulfillment, God is already complete in and of Himself.

Nevertheless God created us, and when He did He put with in us a desire to have fellowship.

(Relationship)

Later on God created another special thing where there could be fellowship with God and fellowship with man and that thing was the church.

Now we talked two weeks ago about the founder of the church, Jesus Christ and then last week we talked about the foundation of the church, the Word of God which is the apostles and the prophets' teachings that make up the Word of God.

The Scripture says the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets through whom the Holy Spirit gave the Word.

Now today we are going to talk about "The Fellowship of the Church".

Now fellowship is more than coffee and donuts and potluck luncheons in the fellowship hall.

Fellowship is more than just friendship.

Fellowship is a special word that God gave in the New Testament called Koinonia.

Koinonia is a word that communicates more than friendship.

It communicates a unity, a oneness based on certain beliefs and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Now to have fellowship there must be seven common beliefs that bind believers together in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

And these seven pillars of truth are essential if you are to experience fellowship with God and fellowship with other believers in the body of Christ known as the church.

The reason fellowship goes far beyond friendship is because you can be a friend to someone and not have these common beliefs.

But you cannot have fellowship with someone without these seven beliefs, these seven pillars of truth on which fellowship is built.

The day of Pentecost has happened.

There have been 3,000 people saved and they have joined the church, having been baptized, they have been added to the church.

So in Acts 2:42 it tells us what happened immediately upon being added to the church.

So they continued steadfastly in fellowship.

Then if we go to Ephesians 4:4-6 the apostle Paul tells us the seven basic truths on which fellowship is built.

No before we read this passage lets understand something first.

This Eph.

passage is all about Church unity.

Building upon the same founder and foundation which the true church in made.

It is Upon the firm and unchanging ground of God’s completed work in Christ, Paul now urges his readers to a life together worthy of their calling (4:1).

Look how the Evangelical Commentary on the Bible puts it...

The foundation of the unity of the new family of God lies in eternally changeless facts (v.

4), all emphasizing the oneness of God, the church, and the faith.

So now lets read together Eph.

4:4-6

Notice how many times he says "one" here.

Seven times, one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father.

So these seven things are the essentials that you must believe in order to have fellowship in the body of Christ.

Now, there are many other things that you can believe or not believe that are not essential.

There are many other things that you may disagree on or agree on in interpretation of the Bible, but these seven things you MUST agree on, because these are seven things that bind us together in the body of Christ.

The object of your faith is vitally important.

You must believe in the right person, you must believe in the right book, you must believe in the right things.

Now these seven things are vitally important.

I. ONE BODY

First of all he says there is one body.

The Bible says that the church is the body of Christ.

Christ is the head (v.15) ; we are the body.

In the Old Testament, God had a temple for His people.

In the New Testament, God has a people for His temple.

The Bible says we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and God indwells us.

(1 Cor.

6:19)

So our body is His body.

And when we meet together, we are the body of Christ present.

But when we scatter out, we are the body of Christ scattered.

He says all of us have been baptized by one Spirit into one body.

Here he is talking about spiritual baptism.

And he is saying we got into the body by spiritual baptism.

When you accept Christ as your Savior, when you are born again by the Holy Spirit, when you believe upon Jesus and you are truly saved, truly born again, the Holy Spirit baptizes you, into the body of Christ.

We will talk more about that here in a few moments.

This body of Christ is heavenly in construction.

God created the body of Christ.

It was conceived in the heart and the mind of God before the foundation of the world.

This body of Christ is divine in creation.

The Scripture says that we are born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible seed by the Word of God that lives and abides forever.

God creates the body of Christ.

This body of Christ is supernatural in constitution.

Colossians 3:11 says, "that in Christ there is neither male nor female, there is neither bond nor free, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision..., but Christ is all and in all."

What this is saying is that the Body of Christ is not made up of hierarchy, God doesn't play favorites, there is no partiality in the Body of Christ.

Now the Body of Christ is everywhere around us.

It is not just a some building with the name Church on it.

It is the believers and followers of Christ who are all around us each and everyday.

Even though we are many scattered everywhere we are still ONE body.

II.

ONE SPIRIT

Secondly he said there is one spirit – verse 4 – and that is the blessed Holy Spirit of God.

He is the person who makes the body alive.

There has to be life in the body and the thing that makes the body live is the Holy Spirit.

Now when the life is gone from the physical body we call it death.

And when the Spirit is gone from the church it is dead!

It is lifeless as a corpse.

There is no power.

But when the Spirit is there, the body is alive, the body is active, the body is moving, the body is dynamic, the body is working, the body is touching, and the body is reaching out.

It is the one Spirit.

The Bible says we need to be filled with the Spirit of God.

We need to be dependent on the Spirit of God.

And when I met a believer and they are right with God and I am right with God, the Spirit in me loves the Spirit in them.

And I can fellowship with them if I have never met them before, why?

If I have never seen them before, the Jesus in me loves the Jesus in them and the Jesus in them can love the Jesus in me.

And I have fellowship with them because of one Spirit.

And that one Spirit makes us one.

III.

ONE HOPE

Number three, there is one hope.