What is Fellowship?
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Good Morning!
Welcome to North Cascades Christian Fellowship
Thanks for joining us today… Whether that is online or in person we are glad you are here!
We are going to spend a couple of weeks talking about FELLOWSHIP!
After all it is part of our church name… and that one word really defines what we strive to be as a local community of Christ Followers!
I asked the question “What is Fellowship?” in our FB group and many of you responded…
One person said Fellowship is “Worship, togetherness & being with other Christians”
Here is another response “Being in the company of others and being able to share openly and honestly.”
Another person said “Togetherness, Spending quality time together with fellow brothers and sisters in the name of Jesus!”
Someone else said “Church family!”
Several people mentioned the idea of Togetherness!
When we think of fellowship we often think of community.
Stuff like friendships, social gatherings, small groups, food, and any activity where we help each other.
A lot of churches have what they call a fellowship hall… that is where the church gathers to have potlucks and build relationships!
Some churches encourage a Fellowship Time after their service, where people hang out and TALK!
As long as you stay 6’ apart and wear a mask… RIGHT
Zoom and Facebook have become tools in which we stay connected today as well!
ALL THAT KIND OF STUFF CAN CERTAINLY BE PART OF FELLOWSHIP…
BECAUSE BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH ONE ANOTHER IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR FAITH!
BUT WE DON’T EXIST AS A CHURCH TO HAVE POTLUCKS!
So, over the next few weeks we are going to explore what Biblical Fellowship looks like!
Let’s Pray TOGETHER!
Language is important… so if we are going to study a term or a concept it is important, we a have a common understanding of the words we are talking about.
The Webster’s Dictionary defines Fellowship Like this:
FELLOWSHIP
1 : COMPANIONSHIP, COMPANY
2 a : community of interest, activity, feeling, or experience
b : the state of being a fellow or associate
3 : a company of equals or friends : ASSOCIATION
4 : the quality or state of being comradely
The word for fellowship in the Greek is the word koinōnɩ́a...
It means something that is shared and those who share it!
It means to have something in common…
This Greek word group, in common everyday usage, is used to describe marriage, friendships, business partnerships, even intercourse...
The Greek word koinōnɩ́a caries this sense of deep and intimate relationships…
In the Biblical sense the word is used for the act of sharing in the activities or privileges of an intimate association or group.
The Bible uses this term to speak of marriage, churches, and our relationship with GOD!
In the New Testament this word koinōnɩ́a is used to describe our relationship with God and with each other.... and from a Biblical perspective… We cannot have true fellowship with each other unless we first have fellowship with GOD!
The same Greek word koinōnɩ́a... is also translated as communion in the NT!
THAT MEANS FELLOWSHIP AND COMMUNION ARE CLOSELY CONNECTED
Communion is the act of sharing something in COMMON…
That is why we call Communion, Communion…
As we take communion as a church, as we eat the bread and drink from the cup... we are sharing something in COMMON!
AND WHAT COMMUNION REPRESENTS IS THE BODY AND BLOOD OF JESUS!
SO, COMMUNION SYMBOLIZES THAT AS THE CHURCH WE ALL HAVE JESUS IN COMMON!
The Apostle Paul in his writings uses the word koinōnɩ́a to describe the CHURCH!
In that sense, in means to have a common participation! WHICH MEANS WE ALL HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY IN THE CHURCH!
So hopefully over the next couple of weeks we can unpack this idea of FELLOWSHIP!
Today we are going to focus in one what it means to have FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD!
We are created to be in FELLOWSHIP with God!
But sin missed all that up!
When Adam & Eve chose to rebel against God, when they chose to pursue the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil over the Tree of Life…
In that moment… SIN entered our world and humanities FELLOWSHIP with God was broken!
Ever since the Fall... Humanity has tried to use religion to regain FELLOWSHIP with GOD. But without JESUS there is no way to restore what was broken by our sin!
Fellowship with GOD is the primary goal of the Christian Life!
3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
When God calls us, when we put our faith in JESUS… we enter into Fellowship with God…
That Fellowship that was broken in the GARDEN is restored!
This restored Fellowship with God is only possible through the blood of Christ.
Our sin requires payment… Jesus’ blood is that payment… we call that payment atonement…
Jesus’ death on the cross was and is the atonement for our SIN!
From the time we are conceived until we are saved, the Bible says we are separated from God by our sin…
Another way to say that is we were at enmity with God.
ENMITY WITH GOD is the opposite of FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD!
Fellowship with God means to be in an intimate personal relationship with God, It means to share something in common with GOD!
Enmity means to be at odds with GOD! OR to be an enemy of GOD!
SIN KEEPS US FROM HAVING FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD… THAT IS WHY WE NEED JESUS!
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
But Jesus reconciled us to God through His death on the cross.
Without a true faith in JESUS we remain enemies with GOD!
LET ME SAY THAT AGAIN!
Without a true faith in JESUS, we remain enemies with GOD!
There is this thing we call Substitionary Atonement:
What that means is Jesus took the full punishment that we deserved for our sins as a substitute in our place. Basically, Jesus traded places with us… Jesus took on our sin and traded us His righteousness…
This is the most beautiful amazing mystery of the GOSPEL!
Jesus paid the penalty of our sin because we unable to do it on our own!
FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD BEGINS WITH SALVATION!
When we repent of our sin and trust in JESUS, not just in His death on the Cross but also in His resurrection… our sins our covered by the Blood of Jesus and our Fellowship is restored with GOD!
That is what the BIBLE says … When we trust in JESUS, we can then have FELLOWSHIP with GOD!
20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
THE BIBLE ALSO TEACHES THAT FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH OUT FAITH IN JESUS…
There are many people today who believe that there are many paths or ways to GOD!
Many people believe in the idea of god!
Many people are “SPIRITUAL.”
Many people worship a god! BUT that doesn’t mean they have fellowship with GOD!
To have FELLOWSHIP with GOD, you must have FAITH IN CHRIST ALONE!
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
There is no other way to have FELLOWSHIP with GOD except through JESUS!
The BIBLE has a lot to say about what Fellowship with God looks like it also tells us what it doesn’t look like…
Here is a list of passages in the BIBLE that talk about fellowship...
(Put on the screen but do not read)
Ps 133:1–3; Mt 18:15–20; 23:1–12; Mk 10:35–45; Jn 10:1–21; 11:45–57; 13:31–35; 17:6–26; Ac 1:12–14; 2:40–47; 4:23–37; 5:12–16; 6:1–7; 9:26–30; 10:34–48; 11:27–30; 12:5–19, 25–13:3; 15:1–29, 36–41; 18:24–28; 20:7–12, 17–21:14; 28:11–16; Ro 1:8–15; 10:1–13; 11:11–36; 12:3–8; 14:1–15:13, 22–33; 16:3–16, 21–24; 1 Co 1:4–17; 3:1–4; 5:1–6:11; 8:1–13; 10:14–11:1, 17–22, 27–12:31; 14:1–19; 16:19–24; 2 Co 2:3–11; 5:12–21; 8:1–15; 9:6–15; 11:5–15; 12:14–21; 13:11–14; Ga 2:1–21; 3:26–4:7; 6:1–10; Eph 2:11–3:7; 4:1–16, 25–5:7, 15–21; Php 1:3–11, 27–2:4; 4:2–7, 10–20; Col 1:9–18; 2:1–10; 3:1–17; 4:7–15; 1 Th 3:1–5; 5:1–22; 2 Th 1:3–12; 3:6–15; 1 Ti 5:1–2; 6:3–10; 2 Ti 3:1–9; Heb 10:19–25; 13:1–17; Jas 2:1–26; 4:11–12; 5:13–18; 1 Pe 1:22–2:3, 13–17; 3:8–12; 4:7–11; 2 Pe 2:12–17; 1 Jn 1:1–2:2; 3:10–15; 4:7–16, 20–5:5; 2 Jn 7–13; 3 Jn 9–12; Jud 3–4, 12–15, 20–23; Re 1:9–20; 2:18–3:6; 19:1–10
Obviously, we can’t begin to unpack all of those verses today…
But I do want to share two biblical characteristics of FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD before we get to some practical application.
1. FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD REQUIRES US TO WALK IN THE LIGHT
The Bible tells us that God is LIGHT!
That means if we are in community or fellowship with GOD, we cannot be in darkness…
It is utterly impossible. That is why the BIBLE says to walk in darkness while at the same time claiming fellowship with GOD... is a lie!
BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WALK IN DARKNESS…
A lot of people assume that walking in darkness means living in SIN but there is more to than that.
The Apostle John constantly used the “light” metaphor in relation to Jesus.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
So, to walk in the LIGHT means that we walk with JESUS!
AND BECAUSE WE ARE IN THE LIGHT JESUS CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN!
The LIGHT allows us to recognize our sinfulness and bring it to JESUS!
That doesn’t mean we never sin.
It just means that because of the Holy Spirit, we recognize our sin and repent of our sin!
All we have to do is turn on the News today… scroll through Facebook or watch a few TikTok’s and we will encounter people who are living in the darkness and they are not even aware of it!
We could talk about sexual immorality, abortion, drug use, drunkeness, atheism…
We could go right on down the list!
THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WOULD ARGUE THAT THESE THINGS ARE NOT SINFUL…
SOME WOULD ARGUE THAT NOT ONLY ARE THEY NOT SINFUL THEY ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
TO WALK IN DARKNESS MEANS TO DENY THE TRUTH OF GOD’S WORD AND TO MOCK JESUS WHO DIED FOR OUR SIN!
When the word of GOD says that something is sinful… and we claim that it is not… what we are doing is mocking the sacrifice that JESUS made to pay for that SIN!
JESUS DIED BECAUSE OF THINGS LIKE:
Sexual immorality, abortion, drug use, drunkeness, atheism… so to claim that those things are not sinful is to claim the JESUS DEATH ON THE CROSS WAS NOT NECESSARY!
THE GREATEST OFFENSE TO GOD… IS TO DENY JESUS ALL TOGETHER!
SO, TO SAY YOU HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD BUT TO WALK IN DARKNESS MEANS TO CLAIM TO FOLLOW JESUS, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME CLAIMING WHAT GOD DECLARES IS EVIL IS ACTUALLY GOOD!
THE SECOND characteristics of FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD I want to mention today is
2. FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD MEANS WE MUST SUBMIT TO GOD
Jesus says in John 14, If we love Him, we will obey Him...
If we have Fellowship with God… our lives are governed by the Spirit and not by the FLESH!
That means God changes our heart and our desires begin to come into alignment with God’s will for our lives!
This is not an instantaneous process… it is a lifelong journey. God continues to refine us and mold us into the image of CHRIST!
THIS IS WHAT WE REFER TO AS SANCTIFICATION!
We used to talk about carnal Christians… have you ever heard that term?
What we meant by that was people who claimed to be followers of JESUS but didn’t live like it! Have you ever met a carnal Christian?
We called them carnal Christians because it was nicer than calling them LIARS OR HYPOCRITES!
But I am not sure it is kind because it leaves people walking in DARKNESS!
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said “Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community
THIS IS WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS!
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
You cannot be hostile toward God and be in Fellowship with GOD! It just doesn’t work!
I want to be clear… I am not talking about sinless perfection. All Christians SIN!
BUT AS CHRIST FOLLOWERS, WE ARE NO LONGER SLAVES TO SIN… AND WE SHOULD NOT PRACTICE SIN!
AND EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY… WE CAN NOT WE CANNOT ACCEPT WHAT GOD DEEMS AS EVIL AS GOOD… WE HAVE TO CALL SIN FOR WHAT IT IS… SIN!
SO HOW CAN WE STRENGTHEN OUR FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD?
Well, I mentioned at the beginning of my sermon today that much of what fellowship is has to do with building relationship.
So if we want to know how to strengthen our fellowship with God it really starts with working our relationship with Him.
Anyone who is married understands this, anyone who has close friends understand this.
Cultivating a relationship takes effort.
Building a truly deep relationship takes time.
Growing closer means giving of yourself, making sacrifices… the Bible says we need to look to the interest of others!
The amazing thing about our relationship with God is that it started because He put forth the biggest sacrifice in order to be in fellowship with us.
Jesus truly gave everything in order to restore our FELLOWSHIP with GOD!
So now if we desire true fellowship, if we desire to have intimate fellowship with the God of the universe who loves us so deeply that He was willing to die for us.
We need to put that same sacrifice and energy back in our relationship with GOD.
And believe it or not it’s as simple as this…
1. DON’T HIDE YOUR SIN FROM GOD!
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
God sees you where you are at and recognizes your shortcomings. Nothing is hidden from Him.
As Romans 3 tells us we have all sinned and fall short of the Glory of God, We need to be reminded that the Lord sees us in the darkness.
If we desire to be in fellowship with God, we need to be honest about the parts of our life that are in the darkness.
When we make excuse for our sin, when we try to justify or downplay the wrong choices we make in life, we make a mockery of God and our relationship with Him.
When we do those things, we are making a choice to walk in the darkness.
True fellowship with God only happens when we first bring forth our lives out of darkness and allow God’s light to begin to shine upon us. Light has disinfecting qualities… The light of God disinfects us from SIN!
We have to walk with Jesus in the light if we ever want to draw closer to God.
Which leads to my next point.
2. PRACTICE REPENTANCE
Repentance means to turn around… When God reveals sin in your life… Confess it.
Ask God to forgive you and make a choice to turn away from your sin and turn back to GOD…
Make repentance something you practice…BUILD IT INTO YOUR LIFE!
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
We all sin… and God is faithful. When we repent of our sin God forgives us. SO DON’T WALK IN YOUR SIN… REPENT AND WALK WITH JESUS!
3. PRAY
Relationships require communication… you cannot expect to have fellowship with GOD unless you are in regular communication with HIM. So set aside time each day to invest in your relationship with JESUS…
Talk to God… Share with him your struggles, your frustrations, your joys, your needs… TALK TO GOD!
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Because of JESUS we have access through prayer to the THRONE OF GOD! We can go directly to the GOd of the UNIVERSE and talk to Him…
If you want a deeper Fellowship with GOD… PRAY!
4. READ YOUR BIBLE!
One of the primary ways God speaks to us is though His Word… it is not the only way but it is the primary way… So if you want to hear from God… READ HIS WORD!
4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
Read the BIBLE for yourself… Study it… Ask God to speak to you through it…
Heb 4:12 says that the word of God is Living and Active! The BIBLE is the WORD OF GOD!
Christian Fellowship begins with our Relationship with JESUS…
We can not have true fellowship with one another with out first being in FELLOWSHIP with GOD So, I just want to encourage you to Seek the Lord…
Invest in your relationship with JESUS!
Deal with the sin in your life, acknowledge it, repent of it… PRAY, READ YOUR BIBLE!
NEXT WEEK WE ARE GONG TO TALK ABOUT HOW FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD RESULTS IN FELLOWSHIP WITH EACH OTHER!
Let’s Pray