Fellowship—You Were Formed For God’s Family

Acts 2:42-47

Last week our topic was worship and we emphasized that corporate worship is at its best when everyone is experiencing personal worship. Sunday morning worship in church can’t be any better than your Monday morning worship at the office. But in emphasizing the experience and practice of personal worship, I hope that I did not underemphasize corporate worship. Something very special takes place when Christians gather together—we become a church. In the Greek language the word for church literally means “the called out ones”. When we become a Christian, God calls us out of the darkness of sin and into the wonderful light of the Savior. But we are not called out of the darkness of isolation into the light of isolation. The picture is not one of leaving a dark room by ourselves and entering a lighted room by ourselves. We are called out of the darkness of isolation and called into the light of fellowship with fellow believers. As Rick Warren says, “we were formed for God’s family.”

But what does it mean to be a part of a church family—to experience Christian fellowship? Have you noticed what is always listed in our bulletin each week? It says: Please stay and join us for refreshments. Now some churches refer to this as a time of fellowship. A story is told of the pastor who asked a little boy if he knew why they had fellowship and coffee after the service. "I think," said the boy, "it’s to get the people awake before they drive home.” No, that is not fellowship. The democrats reminded me of fellowship and unity this week. Up until Tuesday, John Edwards had been bashing John Kerry—they were the very opposite of being united. But after conceding defeat, by Wednesday Edwards had officially endorsed Kerry. How could Edwards enter into an alliance with someone he was formerly criticizing?  They formed an alliance so that the Democrats could combine forces to defeat their common enemy—the Republicans. (I’m not picking on the Democrats because the Republicans would have done the same thing.) Is this how we define a church—a group of people who really don’t like one another, who have a history of criticizing one another, yet combine forces to defeat a common enemy? Certainly the second part is correct—a church does combine forces to defeat Satan—our common enemy, but true fellowship is much more than that.

When I lived in Illinois I spent four years in an accountability group with a man named Paul. Last month I had the chance to visit with Paul in Minneapolis only to learn that his marriage is struggling in a big way. About a week later Paul went me an email where he wrote this: “We have a friendship and bond that is really unexplainable. No matter the time or distance, we can connect instantly. I consider you a friend who is closer than a brother.” I haven’t done anything to deserve a friend like this, but God has allowed us to share this close fellowship. Could it be that most of us have such a difficult time defining and describing fellowship because so few of us have actually experienced it? Sometimes we can come to an understanding of something by describing what it isn’t. As we look to a passage in Acts, we will describe several barriers which need to be removed in order to experience a vital fellowship in our local body—a place of warmth, caring and mutual commitment to a common cause.

^42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ^43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ^44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. ^45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ^46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ^47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

This second chapter in Acts begins with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and Peter’s famous Pentecost sermon in Jerusalem. The chapter ends with the conversion of three thousand of Peter’s listeners. One day prior the church did not exist. Ten days prior Jesus ascended to Heaven. But just as Jesus predicted, the Holy Spirit rained down upon Jerusalem and in an instant, 3,000 souls were immediately transferred from darkness into the glorious light of salvation. The church was born and the verses we just read described the first months of its existence. This gives us the first barrier that needs to be removed to have genuine Christian fellowship—turning spiritual darkness into light.

This may seem obvious, but without Christian faith there can be no Christian fellowship. As believers, 1 John 1:3 tells us that “we have fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” Fellowship is the key word—many of us have heard of the Greek word, koinonia, which is translated as “fellowship”. As a Christian you have true koinonia—fellowship with Christ. And a shared fellowship with the Lord is the only thing that can bring fellowship between believers. I am linked to Christ and you are linked to Christ, therefore we are linked to one another in fellowship. If one of is not linked to Christ, then we cannot have Christian fellowship.

Isn’t it funny how we search, sometimes in vain, for connections with other people? Have you ever been traveling and told someone you just met that you were from Wisconsin? What is the classic question that is often asked? The other person says to you, “Oh, you’re from Wisconsin. My aunt is from Wisconsin, maybe you know her—her name is Julie Johnson.” That may be an extreme example, but once in a while we meet total strangers who have some connection to someone we know. Suppose you did know this Julie Johnson. What if she had been your next door neighbor for fifteen years?  An immediate connection  would develop with this total stranger simply because you both have a relationship with this Julie Johnson. You may have nothing else in common with this person, but for now, all you need is your common friend. Now if we can have a connection on the level of human relationships, how much deeper is the possibility for fellowship when you share a connection on the spiritual level.

Karen and I first discovered this when we went on a missions trip to former East Germany in 1993. Among a group of German believers we met, we struck up a quick relationship with a girl named Sylvia. All we started with was a shared relationship with Jesus, but that was enough for the three of us to experience true fellowship. Teens and young people, this is why your parents warn you not to develop dating relationships with non-believers. But unfortunately, so many don’t listen to their parent’s advice. “It’s OK mom, my boyfriend goes to church.” A boyfriend or girlfriend may very well attend church, he or she may be a nice person, but if the two of you do not share Christ in common, then you will never be united in Christian fellowship The relationship will always be missing something and since the other person does not have faith, your faith will be dragged down.

The second barrier to fellowship is isolation which needs to be turned into involvement. The believers in Jerusalem were involved in each others’ lives. Look again at v. 46, ^ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. They spent lots and lots of time together. They were together on a daily basis. They ate meals together. They celebrated the “breaking of bread”, which no doubt was a celebration of the Lord’s Supper—a memorial of their Savior whom they had only known for a few months. They were devoted to the apostles’ teaching and to prayer. They spent time in each other’s homes. Now what does that sound like to you? They went to each other’s homes and they had teaching, fellowship and prayer. Clearly the early church invented small groups! The teaching by the apostles was probably done in the temple courts, but for the most part this was typical of what we strive to do in our small groups.

This is why we have been so excited to see so many people involved in the Purpose Driven Life studies. In a sense you are forced to have involvement in each other’s lives. Let’s face it, even on a Sunday morning you can remain isolated. Even in our small church you can slip in and slip out virtually undetected. Sunday morning worship does not remove isolation, but a small group helps to move people from isolation to involvement. Notice I said it “helps”. Even a small group does not guarantee fellowship among believers. Look at v. 42 again, They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship. Do you see that? They were devoted to fellowship. Christian fellowship cannot happen unless both parties are believers, but just because they are believers does not mean a deep fellowship will happen automatically. Unity is the easy part. What would happen if you tied the tails of two cats together and hung them over a  clothesline? Well for one you would get arrested for cruelty to animals, but the point is that you would have unity, but no fellowship. The unity of a church body does guarantee fellowship. The early Christians were devoted to being involved with one another—they were devoted to deepening fellowship.

Many people enter churches with the expectation that all of their relational needs will be met. Sometimes the church lets people down, sometimes the church, our church, fails to see their need and genuine fellowship is not developed. But sometimes fellowship is not developed because the person is not devoted to fellowship. It doesn’t happen all by itself. But if we all share a mutual devotion to fellowship we will be intentionally moving away from isolation and working toward involvement.

But what are the practical steps to devoting yourself to fellowship? Fellowship doesn’t happen just by trying harder. These early Christians were very practical in their fellowship, which leads to our third principle—they valued people over possessions. All the believers were together and had everything in common. ^45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. If you have a modern day understanding of Marxism and Communism, you might think this would be a good text to support a communistic way of life. The believers sold their possessions and held all things in common. The key difference is that all of their selling and sharing was done on a purely voluntary basis whereas communism was forced upon people.

It is hard to imagine this 1^st century setting. Can you imagine being taught by the apostles? Their teaching would have been very authoritative and accurate. All of these Jewish Christians would have been very familiar with the Old Testament and the apostles would have been explaining how Jesus fulfilled the law and the requirements of the old covenant Then they would have celebrated the Lord’s Supper together, possibly repeating Jesus’ own words when he said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” The teaching would have been more intense—the communion celebration would have been more intense, and the sharing of needs would have been more intense. When they shared their needs and their food with one another, much of it was a life-sustaining kind of sharing. It was not like our fellowship dinners where we all eat too much! There were no unemployment benefits back then. There were no soup kitchens, food stamps and government benefits. The church either met the needs of fellow believers or else the Christians went hungry—or much worse. As isolated individuals they would have suffered more, but as a fellowship of believers no one went hungry. No one went unclothed. No one went without a roof over their heads.

This kind of life-sustaining sharing is still true of churches in other parts of the world. But in our culture, we don’t have as the same intensity of need, therefore we cannot appreciate the same intensity of sharing. But that does not mean we cannot be generous with one another and value people over possessions. It’s not that possessions are a bad thing, but if your heart is full of possessions, then there is no room left for people.

Recently I heard a true story of one couple who was struggling with possessions. They were trying to purchase an item for their home which was practical thing, but not essential. In their attempt to find just the right item at just the right price, they eventually realized that this possession, which wasn’t a bad thing, was taking up too much room in their heart. So in order to break the hold it had on their heart, they decided to take the money they would have spent on this item for their home and give the money away. This couple told me that if money was available to spend on the house, then it was available to give away. In that sense it wasn’t even a sacrifice, but what happened is once they gave the money away, the enslavement to that possession was gone. The space in their heart that was held by that possession was suddenly set free.

The early church shared everything and held it in common. Therefore, next week the elders will be in the back of the church so you can sign over the titles to your house and cars to them! We may not hold all of our possession in common, but after tomorrow morning there is one thing we will hold in common—ten acres of land on Cty Hwy B. Tomorrow morning Tony and Don will sign the paperwork committing, not just them, but all of us to a $500 per month mortgage payment. We want to thank you again for your generous giving toward the down payment. You may recall that we had decided that we would not move forward with the purchase unless we were able to raise the 20% down payment in cash. We exceeded that amount and raised nearly 27% of the downpayment. Even though we are still about $900 a month short of our budget, we know the resources are among us. If we all shared the responsibility and privilege, we know there are sufficient resources in our congregation. And I don’t mean resources just to meet our budget. I don’t think God is only concerned about meeting our budget, but he is concerned that we take care of one another—that no one goes without a genuine need being met.

One practical way of doing this is to give to our benevolent fund. These funds are only used for people who have a definite need in an emergency. Some people say churches talk too much about money. I don’t think we are guilty of that at Grace Church. The bottom line is, if you want healthy fellowship, you we must all value people over possessions.

The final barrier that must be removed is to turn personal comfort into spiritual combat. It is obvious that these early Christians were engaged in significant ministry. They were taking care of fellow believers as the Lord was adding to their numbers on a daily basis. They were growing so fast they could hardly take care of their own needs. But after a little while they even these active believers began to get comfortable. We know this because the last thing Jesus told them before he ascended to Heaven was to take the gospel to “Judea, Samaria and the utter most pasts of the world.” Had they started doing this? It appears they were getting comfortable and complacent in their Christian fellowship because God had to send a horrific persecution to get them moving. We learn about this persecution in chapter eight, which was so bad that almost everyone left their homes, businesses and church fellowships and ran for safety in faraway places. They recognized their persecution was heaven-sent because they began to share the gospel wherever they went. They had finally begun to turn their personal comfort into spiritual combat.

We all want close fellowship as a church, but if we get too comfortable we will not want to move out of our comfort to do the ministry. This is another benefit of the PDL groups. They have forced so many of us out of our comfort zones. They have made us realize that the very best kind of fellowship is experienced in the midst of ministry. Back in Prairie du Sac Jeff and I were friends, but other than an occasional lunch, we did not spend much time together. I would say that our level of fellowship was not all that deep. But after all of our shared ministry we have developed a close fellowship. I guess we could have prioritized just the fellowship. We could have gone golfing or ate more pizza lunches, but do you think the fellowship would have been as deep without the ministry?

We all want a deeper sense of fellowship, but we can’t develop it apart from the other four purposes. Worship strengthens fellowship—just like the early church worshipped through teaching, communion and prayer. Discipleship, ministry and evangelism all work together to strengthen fellowship. Focus only on fellowship and you miss the other four. Focus on the other four and you get fellowship.

Rich Maurer

March 7, 2004