Life Together - The beauty of Christian Fellowship

Introduction

John 19:28–30 NASB95

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. 30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

I’m afraid that I must take a detour from our customary exposition of Matthew’s Gospel because I need more time to understand the next part of the text properly.

And so, for today, allow me to redirect your attention to the portion in John 19 that I just read to you. Sometimes we Christians need to be severely reminded of that ultimate sacrifice that made us who we are. Sometimes we need to come back to the cross and stay there. We need to be reminded that Jesus actually died for us.

It is so easy for us to forget that the cross of Jesus Christ was the foreordained mercy of God to accomplish very specific outcomes in our lives, one of which, is our life-together as fellow believers in Christ. Today, I want to bring to your attention God’s intention for Christian fellowship. And for that, we will start at the beginning.

The Glory

Can you imagine heaven, brothers and sisters? Can you imagine the great void of an earth yet unformed and God’s spirit hovering over the face of the waters.

I have heard many professing Christians describe this part of history before creation as a very lonely place, and how God out of his loneliness created the universe, and man, in order to have fellowship with him.

Oh how disatisfying false theology can be beloved, for God wasn’t alone in eternity past. He was in fellowship with himself. The perfect Being that is God existed eternally in three co-equal persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

He enjoyed the company of the triune community of Himself, and the glory of this triune Being is a splendour and a majesty unknown to the carnal hearts of mankind.

God wasn’t lacking in anything, He was full in every sense of the word. Therefore, when His Spirit hovers over the waters, there we find the language of eager expectation, as though something amazing was about to happen. And it did happen, God spoke and dispelled the darkness, the unformed void, and life was created. God did not create the world because He lacked company, He created the world out of the great abundance He enjoyed in the company of His triune existence.

When God thus created the world, He wasn’t without intention. For these very first words He uttered, carried the symbolic intention of our salvation, as we see in 2 Corinthians 4:6

2 Corinthians 4:6 NASB95

6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

God wasn’t figuring it all out as things unfolded, He had determined what to do beforehand in the triune counsel before creation.

Ephesians 1:4 NASB95

4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love

The omniscience of God is the profound reality that in that divine counsel, they knew the exact number of people that would attend our church service this morning, and what I was going to preach on.

Beloved, God determined then, when as yet nothing existed, He determined then that He would help me preach this day. For in all my struggle to prepare this sermon, the bigger question is if I would trust in myself, or in Him. He is with us today, but His will to be with us today was determined at a time in the past when the earth was not yet formed.

Therefore, when the majesty of God was exposed to the world in creation, the Creator began revealing Himself to His creation.

The Cross

The sin of Adam, the fall of man, and wretched state of mankind did not suprise God. It was all part of God’s ordained plan to bring glory to His name.

The cross of Jesus Christ wasn’t a make-shift arrangement, it was the plan before the beginning of the world. It is in light of this context that we must read John 19:28-30

John 19:28–30 NASB95

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. 30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

Do you see the intention of Christ? From glory to the cross, Jesus is the foreordained propitiation for our sins, Philippians 2:6-8

Philippians 2:6–8 NASB95

6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

However, the divine intention of God in Christ Jesus was not to just save sinners from hell, but to gather the saved sinners unto Himself. Christian fellowship is not the after effect of God’s intention to save us, it is the ultimate intention for which He saved us.

Our individual and seperate salvation is not meant to be the end for which Christ died, our gathering together because of our salvation in Him is the end for which Christ died.

Our salvation is a key part of God’s redemptive work, but it is not the only key part. The glorious Son, the second person of this eternal Trinity, expressed His thoughts to the Father in our presence in John 17:20-26

John 17:20–26 NASB95

20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 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. 22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

The Fellowship

If I could recommend to you an excellent book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer titled ‘Life Together - The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community, in which he talks about the Christians fellowship as being a fellowship ‘through’ and ‘in’ Christ.

Through Christ, in that Christian fellowship is a spiritual fellowship in that only born-again Christians whose spirits are made alive through Christ can be a part of. The entry into such a fellowship is through Christ.

This sets the Christian fellowship apart from any other kind of fellowship. The people in this fellowship have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16

1 Corinthians 2:16 NASB95

16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Bonhoeffer points out the difference between worldly love and Christian love. For worldly love looks to satisfy the individual in the act of loving but Christian love looks to satisfy the individual in the glory of Christ.

Look at these two verses in

John 15:13 NASB95

13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

and

1 Corinthians 13:3 NASB95

3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Death in both these cases can appear the same to us, but one is damnable and the other worthy of eternal rewards. It is not the act that creates the love, but love that creates the act.

The only reasons why Christians are able to love is because they have been loved. We give only what we have received.

John 15:9 NASB95

9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

And this forms the basis of John 15:12

John 15:12 NASB95

12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

Christian fellowship is possible only by and through the providence of the Trinitarian fellowship. Our love is bound up in His love. We cannot love one another, if we do not know the love of God.

Christian fellowship is born through this love. Through Christ Jesus. Christians therefore do not have to figure out fellowship like they always try to do. If they are enjoying the love of God daily in their own lives, all they have to do is come together and extend that love for one another.

Bonhoeffer points out that in such a situation, in the face of our brothers, we see the face of Christ.

In Christ. We come across many passages that use the phrase in Christ, and yet we seldom realise the gravity of what that means. In Christ is not mere branding of Christian life. It is not about a life lived under a superficial banner that reads ‘In Jesus Name’. In Christ, means that we are the sustained by Christ’s involvement in our lives. Not a symbolic involvement, but an actual involvement.

Christian fellowship is ‘In Christ’. We are the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27

1 Corinthians 12:12–27 NASB95

12 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body is not one member, but many. 15 If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; 23 and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, 24 whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, 25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.

As the body of Christ, if you be the hand, who moves the hand? Does the hand move of it’s own selfish volition? An unhealthy body has members that revolt against each other and against the head. But a healthy body works together.

Do we ever consider of one another when we gather together, that the hand of Christ has come? Look, the feet of Christ, the ears of Christ, the eyes of Christ! Do we see in this fellowship Christ in everyone of us or do we look for Christ outside of us all the time?

Do we consider when a brother or sister calls us on the phone, that Christ is calling us? 1 John 4:11-13

1 John 4:11–13 NASB95

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

I must admit that I picked up Bonhoeffer’s book not knowing in the least of my utter bankcruptcy in understanding the beauty of Christian fellowship.

We are one

Psalm 133 NASB95

A Song of Ascents, of David. 1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, Coming down upon the beard, Even Aaron’s beard, Coming down upon the edge of his robes. 3 It is like the dew of Hermon Coming down upon the mountains of Zion; For there the Lord commanded the blessing—life forever.

Christian fellowship is born through and sustained in Christ. The highest end for which we unite is the magnificence and glory of Christ, not of ourselfes. We do not love for the sake of love, or serve for the sake of service. We do it all for the glory and majesty of Christ.

We are one in the Spirit, and Christ reigns in our midst externally and internally, from outside us as the Sovereign Lord, and from inside us as the Divine Counsellor.

Christ is intimately acquainted with us, in what we do.

[Bonhoeffer talks about praying the Psalms.]

Next week, we’ll look at how this Christian fellowship is observed in the early church throughout the New Testament, and what Jesus’ instructions to us are as a church.