Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
HomeSermonsThe Wheel: Fellowship Part I

The Wheel: Fellowship Part I

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Scripture on Fellowship

We’re going to look at a number of passages today. We’re going to talk about the spoke on the Christian wheel which has been called the fellowship spoke. And we’re going to look at a number of passages before we actually settle into our topic. If we open our Bibles to the book of Romans, I just want to begin by reading through a number of texts that deal with the topic of fellowship, what some people call body life, some people call community. They’re all trying to talk about the same general topic. Let’s start in Romans chapter 12. Here in Romans 12 Paul says to the Romans, he says:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. [audio unclear] Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

(Romans 12:1–16)

That’s a beautiful description really of Christian community here as you look especially in verses 9 through 16, these different aspects of life together, rejoicing with one another, weeping with one another, serving one another, sharing with one another. That is what we’re talking about when we talk about this idea of community or fellowship. Look at 1 Corinthians 12, another well-known passage on Christian community.

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.

(1 Corinthians 12:12–18)

What’s the answer? No, the answer is no. So there’s one body, but there are many different members. All these members are gifted in different ways. Go to the book of Ephesians 4. Paul says in Ephesians 4 verse 1:

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

(Ephesians 4:1–16)

It’s a beautiful passage. We’re going to come back to that because it talks about the foundation of our fellowship. But let’s read at least one more. Look at Philippians chapter 2, starting in chapter 1, verse 27. Paul says:

Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me. Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

(Philippians 1:27–2:4)

These are just a few of the many passages in the New Testament dealing with what we call fellowship or community. Community is kind of the buzzword these days when people talk about the church. So as we talk about this idea of fellowship, community, I want to let you know where we’re going today. I want to talk about the meaning of fellowship, what it really means. And then we’ll also talk in the weeks ahead about ministry. And one of the reasons on the wheel, when we were displaying the wheel, the spoke that was called fellowship I renamed to work. And the reason is real fellowship in community entails work. And when you’re called into a community, when you’re called into the body of Christ, you are given a work to do. Because as we will see in the next few weeks, every Christian has been gifted, every Christian has been called, every Christian has a ministry of some kind. Now, unfortunately, many Christians don’t know their gifts and they don’t know what their ministry is, and that is to the detriment of the body of Christ. But the fact is, according to Scripture, every one of us has received a measure of the gift of Christ. So that measure is given to us so that we can minister to one another and build up the body of Christ. So we’re going to be talking in the next few weeks about being able to identify what your gifts are and what your ministry is. Because apart from knowing that, you’re really kind of handicapped. [audio unclear]

Jesus Is the Foundation

The foundation of our fellowship is Jesus Christ Himself. This is why when you look at the Christian wheel, the hub is Jesus. He’s really the center of everything. And so when I say Jesus is the foundation of our fellowship, what I mean is that we are able to have fellowship because of the work of Jesus Christ, and because of what He’s done. Let’s go back to Ephesians 4 for a moment. In 4:1 Paul says, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord.” Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the well-known preacher, spent several sermons on the word therefore, and rightly so. Because what Paul is doing in chapter 4 is Paul is now making application of everything he said in chapters 1 through 3. So because of everything that I’ve talked about in these three chapters, therefore now let’s talk about the practical implications of this doctrinal stuff that I’ve talked about. So when we look at chapter 4 and it talks about the unity of the body, when it talks about the body being gifted, when it talks about the body building itself up in love, we have to realize that this is a therefore, this is an application of what Paul had told us earlier in the book. Well, what has he told us earlier in the book of Ephesians? Well, he said this. He talks in chapter 2 about the work of Jesus. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” What did He do? He made us alive together in Christ. He says in 2:6, He has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And it’s striking, he says He’s made us alive together. He’s raised us up together and He’s made us sit together. This word together is important, because this is the fundamental idea of community, being together. So Jesus has quickened us, He has raised us from the dead spiritually, He has made us to sit with Him in the heavenlies, we are now united to our Head who is Jesus Christ. And because of that, it says in chapter 2, in verses 11 through 22, that we are no longer far off. We’re no longer aliens from the household of God. We’re no longer strangers to the covenant. But in verse 19 he says that we are fellow citizens with the saints. We are members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also, you, if you are a Christian, are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Being united to the Head, we’re united to the body. Our union with Jesus is the foundation of our union with the church. You could not be a member of a church, but if you’re truly united to the Head, then you are united to the body. Because Paul says there’s only one Lord, that’s Jesus, amen, and there’s only one body. There’s only one. Now, you can drive through our community, and you’ll see churches on every corner. But there’s only one true body of Christ. Jesus said to the Father in John 17, He’s praying to the Father and He’s really praying for us. And Jesus describes eternal life as knowing the Father and the Son. Eternal life. Not just believing a set of doctrines and a set of things, but genuinely being united to Him through faith so that your spirit is joined to His. There’s only one Lord, that’s Jesus, amen. There’s only one faith. [audio unclear] And it’s only possible because of Jesus. Not only is it only possible because of Jesus’ work in the past, it’s only because of Jesus’ work in the present, by His Spirit entering into us, being joined to us. You can’t fellowship by yourself. You have to be in community. And fellowship is not being different, distant, aloof, visitor, guest, quiet, unfriendly, antisocial, stingy, or any of those words. Matter of fact, all of those words are antonyms to the idea of fellowship. The most important thing that Christians have in common is not their church, that’s not first. It’s when we are able to look at one another in light of the work of Jesus Christ. That means we no longer look at one another through human eyes. We no longer look at one another based upon race, economic status, gender. We no longer look at one another based upon anything human or physical or material. We look at one another based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. This is the most important point I think I can make about this idea of fellowship.

Members of His Body

The church being the body, it’s not simply a metaphor. It’s not simply a metaphor. Remember when Jesus met Paul on the Damascus Road. Now Paul was persecuting the church, and Jesus said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” [audio unclear] The truth that we are united to Him, what Jesus is saying is, if you persecute My church, you are persecuting Me. Not just one of My people, Me. You remember in Matthew 25, when the Son of Man separates the sheep and the goats, and those on the left go into everlasting destruction. Those who go into the kingdom say, why do we get to go into the kingdom? He says, I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me. And they say, when did we do that? And He says, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. How we are treating them is how we are treating Jesus. Now if we believed that, there would never be division in the church. This is what we need to understand. It should caution us in how we think and how we act toward one another. You know, Jesus, before He went to the cross and rose from the dead and was ascended, He got on His knees and He washed the feet of His disciples. He was just taking a bath, because by washing their feet He was washing His own body. If we could see one another as members of Jesus—now remember being a member of Jesus isn’t just a biblical figure of speech, it’s a truth—if we could see one another as members of Jesus then we would consider it a privilege to wash one another’s feet. You know, some people are just kind of hard to love. You know what I mean? Am I right? Yeah. Some people are hard to love. But here’s the thing we have to understand, as we relate to one another. [audio unclear]

Growing Up into Christ

Notice verse 12, for the equipping of the saints, so the people in leadership are supposed to equip the saints, because the saints have a work of ministry. And that work is the edifying or building up of the body of Christ, building it up. Well, building up the body of Christ implies that we have a goal. This fullness of Christ is not just individual fullness, but corporate fullness. So we need to keep the goal in mind. And yes, our brothers and sisters may be hard to love, but we learn to relate to one another according to truth. Say according to truth, not according to feelings, but according to truth. And the truth says we are one body, we have one Head, we have one Lord, we have one faith. So we mature into Him. We grow up into the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ, both individually and corporately. So when we talk about fellowship, or community or unity, whatever word you want to use, the biblical facts are there’s one Head and one body, there’s one faith, one Lord, one baptism. You can be members of the same church and they can live far away from one another and never see one another other than for an hour or two on Sunday, but that’s not genuine community, and there’s really no shortcut to this because genuine community simply takes time. It’s like if we understand that fellowship is really relationship, in other words not something we do fundamentally, it’s something that we have, it takes time. Any relationship is going to take time. Right?

Time, Worship, and Prayer

Secondly, common worship and prayer is something we need to be doing together. One of the main reasons we gather is because Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” That is, the Christian community is Jesus Christ Himself, amen. He is the person, He’s the reason that we gather, because of Jesus and His work. So we gather unto His name, we come together and we worship around Him or unto Him because He’s the center. As we do that, we are individually enriched because Jesus is all in all in the church. He comes and He fills His church. And so we partake of His fullness as we gather together unto His name. I believe that the more time that Christians can be together—worship, prayer, Bible study, etc. that is unto His name—the more that we can be together, the more healthy we will be spiritually. In fact, that’s what I’ve seen over the years: generally when people are healthy, they want to be doing communal things, and when they’re not spiritually healthy, they tend to withdraw. But let me just say this, maybe you’re struggling, the worst thing you can do is to withdraw from the community. That’s the worst thing you can do. That is the very thing the enemy wants you to do because he wants to isolate you. He wants to isolate you because when you’re isolated he can just pick you off. So the wolf wants to separate the lamb from the flock. When the lamb is pulled away, it pounces on the lamb. So very often the very time you need the body most is the time you will feel least inclined to be part of the body, but you cannot withdraw. That is very harmful for you spiritually. You need to be part of the body as frequently as you are able. So we come for corporate worship, the focus on Jesus.

Let me say a word about prayer. The Scripture tells us that we are to bear one another’s burdens, right? In Galatians 6, in James it says we’re to confess our sins to one another. I mean there’s this picture in Scripture of sharing that’s pretty transparent. I actually think that Ephesians 4, when Paul says that we are to speak the truth in love, that’s what he’s talking about. I don’t think he’s saying get together and just recite creeds or get together and just quote Bible verses. I think he’s saying get together and be honest. That’s what I think he’s saying. And yet there’s very little real transparency in the body of Christ. That’s a fact. You know it. I know it. So let’s just say it. Okay. There is very little transparency. This is why you’ll go to a life group or a prayer meeting and you’ll say, okay, let’s take some prayer requests. Someone will say, I want to pray for Aunt Susie’s dog who’s going to be put on antidepressants. It means nothing to nobody. It means nothing to the person giving the request out. It’s just their turn to give a request. Okay, what can I think of to say? You know, you all know it’s true. So, you know, when we gather and we actually have conversations together, whether it’s in a life group or a prayer meeting or even over food, we need to be talking about our spiritual life, our growth, what we’re learning, what we’re struggling with. And so when you’re in a prayer meeting and say, hey, how can we pray for you? You need to talk about how you’re doing with the Lord. You need to talk about your victories. You need to talk about your failures, talk about your sins, share who you really are. We were at a life group a couple months ago and they started to take prayer requests and one of the people in the group said, actually it was the first prayer request, said, I need you all to pray for me because I’m really struggling in my quiet time with the Lord and just having a hard time. And that set the tone for the whole prayer time. That honesty. And because that person was honest, other people felt like they could be honest. And weeks later, I happened to have a conversation with that individual. And she mentioned that, in fact, after that prayer, her quiet time with the Lord got much better. Now what if she had not shared it? And she just stayed in that place. And the body hadn’t prayed. Would things have gotten better? Well, I don’t know, maybe not. Because see, here’s the thing I have to understand is that the body builds up the body. And I’ve said this many times, I’m going to say it again, I’m a broken record by this point in my ministry, I’m on a broken record. There are things that God wants to give you but you’re only going to get it through the church. He’s got knowledge for you to hear, but it’s only going to be spoken through a person you know. It’s not going to come directly from the Bible. It’s not going to come that way. Now it’s there, but it’s not going to come that way. He’s got things to say to you that you need to hear, but they’re going to come from other people. He’s got things He wants to give you, but they’re going to come from other people, because that’s what the body does. When the body ministers to itself, it’s Jesus ministering to His body. It’s Jesus doing it. It’s Jesus. And Jesus wants to bless you, and Jesus wants to build you up, and Jesus wants to encourage you. Sometimes Jesus actually wants to rebuke you too. But you won’t listen to anybody. You’re too spiritual. See, so you go read your Bible, “Oh, a word from God. You’re not God. I’ve got my Bible. I’ve got the Holy Spirit.” And you won’t listen to other people. And because you think you’ve got it all together. And you know what? You are closing your ears to the Lord. He wants to talk to you. He wants to share things with you. He wants to build you up. He wants you to have healing in your life. He wants you to have victory over sin. And a lot of it is not coming to you, no matter how much you read your Bible, because you’re not in fellowship with the church of Jesus Christ. Not really in fellowship. And until we are willing to speak the truth in love, until we’re willing to be more transparent, to be more honest, to not only share how we are doing, but to share what God has given us for others to speak into their lives, until we do that, we’re not going to become a mature body. So please come to life group, please come to prayer meeting, but don’t talk about Aunt Susie’s depressed dog. We’re done with that. Okay. You can pray for what God is teaching you, what God is speaking to you through His Word. Right. So we need to learn to truly pray for one another.

Meals and a Gift of Grace

I don’t have any time on this because we’re going to bring it up, I think we’ll probably next week, a common thing is common ministry. I’ll just say a quick word. As I said earlier, we’re called to ministry. Every Christian is gifted, and every Christian has a ministry first to the church, and secondly to the world. And we’re going to talk next week about our ministry to one another, what that looks like. And then when we talk about the fourth spoke, which is witness, we’ll talk about our ministry to the world. So I won’t spend time on that, because we’re running out of time. Last common thing is we find in Scripture that Christians gathered frequently and they gathered for meals or feasts. This is very common, and we joke about it today, you know, Southern Baptists and their fried chicken. But the reality is we do fellowship, you know, we say we call it FOF, right, fellowship over food. But we’re spending time together, we’re developing a relationship as we eat together. The thing we often miss in this idea of feasting or common meals is this, is that in the Middle East at the time of Jesus, it was understood that if you broke bread with somebody, in other words, if you sat down at a common table with somebody and you had a meal with them, you were saying they were family. And if you had them at your table and you broke bread with them, you were pledging yourself to them, as if they were part of your family. That’s why meals were so important. And so if you broke bread with somebody, you were pledging to protect them and to guard them and to support them and to help them because they were brothers of the bread. So we can joke about eating together but in fact it’s actually a sacred act when we share a meal, and then when we share our meals together we need to understand that we are developing a relationship, we’re building community, we’re committing ourselves to one another, to love one another and to support one another. I wish I had more time and we could look at that in more detail, but we don’t.

I’m just going to close with a quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He says this. He says, it’s true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God, meaning the community, for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden underfoot by those who have the gift every day. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the kingdom of God, that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed. I’ll never forget that when I was hospitalized years ago because of my back, I was not able to attend church for months. I was in the hospital for weeks, then after I got out of the hospital I came home pretty much homebound for many more weeks. I wasn’t able to go to church for months. You know, that was the first time I really began to appreciate the community, the communal aspect. I’ve been going to church, and Bible studies, you know, for years and years, and kind of just taking it for granted. But then when I was not literally fit to go, I really began to appreciate the body of Christ. And I remembered the joy that I had when I was able to go to church and to worship the Lord with others. And Bonhoeffer is right, it’s easily forgotten. It’s easily taken for granted. So he says, therefore let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with others praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare, it is grace, nothing but grace that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Let’s stand together. Lord, we thank You for Your grace. And Jesus, I thank You that You’ve not only saved us individually, You’ve saved us as a body. And I pray, Lord, that You would grant each one of us the eyes to see what Your church really is. Grant us the vision to see who our fellow Christian really is as a member of Your body. Lord, we thank You that You have united us to Yourself and we thank You that You have united us to one another. I pray that we may truly walk worthy of our calling. I ask it in Your name and for Your glory. Amen.