FELLOWSHIP
INTRODUCTION
The scriptures in Acts 2:42 clearly showed that one of the four things the early church devoted itself to was “fellowship.” Fellowship was a very important part of their reason for meeting together. It was one of their objectives.
The early Christians also devoted themselves to fellowship. They just didn’t have fellowship; they devoted themselves to it. This means that fellowship was a priority and one of the objectives for gathering together. They made fellowship a priority.
Today, however, we often view fellowship as what we do in “fellowship hall.” It’s the place where we have casual conversations and savor coffee and donuts. This is not bad and can contribute to fellowship, but it falls far short of fellowship according to biblical standards and according to the meaning.
Still others who may have become fed up with church seek fellowship through viewing a worship service on television, but this too misses the picture. The electronic religion of multitudes of people creates an emptiness—interpersonal relationships are so desperately needed to keep our faith glowing and growing. If you drop off your associations with other Christians and dissociate yourself from them in worship and service, you’ll run out of spiritual fervor and dedication in a short time. There is no substitute for “going to church and worshiping with others of like precious faith.”
True fellowship involves getting together for spiritual purposes: for sharing needs, for prayer, for discussing and sharing the Word to encourage, comfort, and edify one another. However, it starts with God.
DEFINITION OF FELLOWSHIP
- Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines fellowship as :
- Companionship, company, associate
- The community of interest, activity, feeling or experience i.e unified body of people having common interests, goals and characteristics.
- Partnership, Membership.
- Fellowship is a relationship of inner unity among believers that express itself in outer co-participation with Christ and one another in accomplishing God’s will.
– This inner unity comes by the Holy Spirit and the believers are meant to exercise it outwardly. (Acts 2:42-47)
– Those who believe the gospel are united in the spirit through Christ to the Father and that unity is the BASIS OF FELLOWSHIP. (John 17:23 NIV)
– Complete Unity refers to the oneness that Christians experience in true fellowship –oneness with one another, with Christ and the Father. Just as the Father is in Jesus, so is Jesus in us and we have unity with one another because of the uniqueness of that relationship. (1 John 1:3)
- Fellowship means partnership to the mutual benefits of those involved.
- Fellowship is God’s method for the outworking of His will through the church.
- Fellowship is God’s way to accomplish His plan of glorifying Christ.
It is a unique relationship with Christ.
We have a relationship of being in Christ and being a part of Christ’s body. Fellowship is neither. It is doing with Christ or the partnership with Christ in fulfilling God’s Will.
Fellowship is doing God’s will together, working together to accomplish God’s will.
- Fellowship is a mutual bond that Christians have with Christ that puts us in a deep, eternal relationship with one another.
- From the scriptures (1 Cor. 10:16, 2 Cor. 8:4, Phil. 3:10) Fellowship can be the sharing in the benefits of the death of Jesus, or in the financial relief of the saints or the sufferings of the Christ. This was also evident in the early church.
- Fellowship is sharing vertically in the Union each of us has in Christ and extending the communion of love with other believers. (1 Cor. 1:9)
The sharing together is in the father and the son. (1 John 1:3)
- Fellowship is based upon common:
- Faith: 1 Samuel 20:30-42
- Purpose: Psalm 133:1-3
- Work: Nehemiah 4:1-23
- Suffering: Dan. 3:16-30
- Belief and conviction: Acts 2:42
- Need: 2 Cor. 8:1-15
- Hope: Heb. 11:39-40
–True Fellowship reinforces these things in our mind and helps us to focus on Christ and His desires and goals for us.
–We can have relationship with unbelievers but true Christian fellowship can only occur within the body of Christ. (John 18:36, 1 John 1:1-3)
MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT FELLOWSHIP
– Fellowship is an informal gathering where saints enjoy each other’s company.
–Fellowship is an event that would take place beyond the regular scheduled church services.
These are all parts of fellowship but fellowship is far more deeper than these.
TRUE CONCEPT OF FELLOWSHIP (New Testament)
There are four major areas in the doctrine of fellowship, they are:
- Relationship (The foundation of fellowship)
- In the new testament, what is shared in common is shared first of all because of a common relationship that we all have together in Christ.
- In the new testament, believers can have fellowship and share together because they first of all have a relationship with Christ and share Him in common. (1 Cor. 1:9, 1 John 1:3)
- Fellowship is first the sharing together in a common life with other believers through relationship with God through Christ.
- It is first and fore most, a relationship rather than an activity. The principle is that any activity that follows should come out of the relationship. (Acts 2:42)
- There is also a negative aspect of relationship but because of our relationship with Christ, there can be no fellowship with the world. (2 Cor. 6:14)
- Relationship stands to fellowship as union stands to communion.
- Fellowship embraces both the objective and experiential aspects. For the experiential to occur, we must first have the objective first because the objective forms the foundation. Only those who are in a relationship with one another (objective) can have true fellowship (subjective experience)
We must first have a real living relationship with God through the faith in Jesus before we can have experiential fellowship with God.
- Partnership (The means of Fellowship)
- It means sharing together. As sharers together of the person and life of Christ, we are automatically co-partners in His enterprise here on earth.
- Examples:
- Peter, James and John (secular) [Luke 5:7,10]
- Paul and Titus, Paul and Philemon, Paul and the Church in Phillips (2 Cor. 8:23, Philemon 17, Phil.1:5, Gal. 2:9)
III. The Lord and the Saints (Hebrews 1:9, Hebrews 3:1,14)
- The concept of fellowship as a spiritual partnership is embedded in the New Testament.
- Whereas the word relationship describes believers as a community partnership describes them as the principals of an enterprise.
Just like a business partnership, The concept of spiritual partnership implies that it is created with an objective of glorifying God .
Just as the believers are united in a community relationship, we are all united in a partnership to glorify God.
- Biblical fellowship, incorporates the idea of an active partnership in the promotion of the gospel and the building up of believers.
- Relationship describes what we are; a people bound together by Christ while partnership describes how we are related to each other in that relationship.
- Companionship (The method of fellowship)
- It is the interchange or communion (communication) that exists amongst people associated together through a relationship they hold in common.
- The key ingredient in companionship is communication.
- It means interchange, communion, intimacy and sharing.
- In Christian community, companionship includes communication on a spiritual level through a mutual sharing of things of Christ: the word, the filling of the Holy Spirit, the ministries and the gifts of the various members of the body of Christ.
- Companionship through communication includes:
- The vertical: this is a communion and fellowship with the Lord through the word, prayer, filling of the Holy Spirit and the abiding life. It involves intimacy, sharing and receiving, communion and communication.
If there will be a fellowship with God, we must first draw on the Lord’s resources as we listen to Him via His word, as we allow the Holy Spirit ti talk to us through the scriptures and through the various providential events of life (trials, blessings , sufferings, etc.) and through the lives of others around us. We need to be open to Him, receptive and teachable and respond in obedience. (Psalm 78:1 81:8, 106:25, Prov. 8:32)
In communion, we give as we make our requests to the Lord and receive as we listen and He answers and directs our paths.
Obedience is one other proofs of our communion and fellowship with the Lord. (John 14:23, John 15:1-27)
John 15:1-1(relationship with the Lord), 12-17 (with each other), 18-17(with the world )
- Horizontal: this is our communion and fellowship with the body of Christ and other believers.
These includes:
- Assembling together as a whole body (Acts 2:42, Heb. 10:25)
- Assembling in smaller groups (2 Tim. 2:2)
iii. Meeting together one-on-one (1 Thess. 5:11)
- Sharing and communicating truth together and building up one another. (Romans 1:11-12, 2 Tim. 2:2, Philemon 6)
- Sharing together in worship, i.e. the Lord’s supper (1 Cor. 10:16), Singing hymns, psalms (Eph. 5:19, Col.3:16), Prayer (1 Cor.14:16-17), the ministry of the word (Acts 20:29, 2 Tim. 2:2, 1 Pet. 4:10-11)
- Sharing together as partners inn the needs, burdens, concerns, joys and blessings for the purpose of ent, comfort, exhortation, praise, prayer and physical help according to the needs and ability. (Phil. 1:5, 19, 2:4, 1:27, 4:3, Romans 12:15, 1 Thess. 5:11,14,14, Heb. 10:33)
God created us to be dependent people – dependent on Him and on one another. *(Gen.2:18)* This is a principle that speaks not to marriage but to all of life especially the spiritual fellowship of all believers.
No man is an island nor has the ability to do it alone. We all need the communion and companionship of one another.
This dimension is not optional. It is not a spiritual luxury NIR an addition ti the exercises f private devotion. It is a spiritual necessity.
God has made us in a way that our fellowship with Himself is fed by our fellowship with other believers and requires to be fed constantly for its own deepening and enrichment.
(Ecc. 4:9-10, Prov. 27:17, 1 Cor. 12:12-18, Eph. 4:11-16 Rom. 1:12, 1 Thess. 5:11-12, Heb. 3:13, 10:22-25, Mal. 3:16)
- Stewardship (Overflow of Fellowship)
A steward is one who manages the property of another. He is not an owner. He is a manager. As stewards, we must recognize that all belongs to the Lord and have been given to us as trusts from God to invest for His purpose and as such be willing to share our own material and possession fir the promotion of the gospel and help those in need.
As believers in partnership with the saviour, we are not owners but stewards of the things God has given us which include not only our talents, gifts, temple(body), time and God’s truth but also the treasures (the material blessings God has given us).
God’s stewardship stems from recognizing our relationship to Jesus and also our partnership in Christ’s enterprise in earth.
Giving is a crucial part in our stewardship. Giving our material blessings as a part of stewardship is also part of fellowship.
(Acts 2:42, Phil.1:5, Heb. 10:33, Romans 12:13-15, 15:25-27, Gal. 6;6, Phil. 4:15, 1 Tim. 6:18, Heb. 13:16, 2 Cor. 8:4, 9:10,13)
FACTS ABOUT FELLOWSHIP
- Real fellowship is of God’s eternal life. Firstly, it is the flow of eternal life in all of the believers in Christ. *(1 John 1:2-3).* Secondly, it is the imparting of the Triune God as life into the believers in Christ, to be our portion for enjoyment. (2 Cor. 13:14, 1 Cor. 1:9)
- To be in divine fellowship, we need to put aside our private interests ad join with the apostles and the triune God for the carrying out of God’s purpose. (Acts 2:42, 1 John 1:3 )
- It is carried out by the spirit in our spirit and it is called the fellowship of the Spirit. (Phil. 2:1)
- It is realized by the sense of the divine life in our spirit and is preserved by the same. (Romans 8:6)
- Fellowship is one of the mist powerful tools for evangelism for the church.
- True fellowship with one another is based in the fellowship with God. Any fellowship not based on God is not a true fellowship. (1 John 1:3)
- Fellowship with one another based on the fellowship with Gid is the core of True Christian unity. (2 John 19:11, John 17:23)
- True fellowship with God and with one another firms the basis of labouring together in the gospel. (Phil. 1:6,27)
- Fellowship with God exists only through the blood of His son. (1 John 1:5-10)
- All aspects of fellowship is dependent in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
- Fellowship is by Grace
- From the Greek word, fellowship is _Koinonia_ which means to have or hold things in common. Contribution, sharing, participation
- Fellowship has never been used to describe a man’s relationship with God until after the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell the Church at Pentecost. It is a post-pentecost relationship. (Acts 2)
- Fellowship occurred naturally as a result of the establishment if the church. (Acts 2:44-47)
This working together to accomplish God’s will continued in the church with the practice of a multiplicity of leadership, diversification of activities, giving to the needy, exercise of different spiritual gifts, etc.
- There is no genuine fellowship without love.
- Fellowship can only be built with time
- Fellowship is a crucial means of accomplishing the God given purpose of the church. (Eph. 3:8-11)
- Fellowship is not church attendance. It begins with attendance. It is the building of an ongoing relationship with fellow believers.
- Fellowship with God requires an advocate (1 John 2:1-2)
- Obedience is the anchor of fellowship with God. ( John 15:10-14)
WAYS VARIOUS PEOPLE SEEK TO HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.
- By their own ability, effort and power.
“Apart from me, the can say nothing” (John 15:5)
- Do nothing at all. Just let go and let God
“Abide in me”. (Ephesians 6:13, Phil.2:12-13, 1 Tim. 4:7, 2 Pet 1:5)
- Partial approach (Lord help me do it)
Grace is not put to work until there is a work by faith.
- Abiding approach (vine/branch analogy)
This is the approach that results in and describes true fellowship. *(John 15)*
FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
- Fellowship with God
- Fellowship has its root in God. It’s main purpose is to advance God’s purpose on earth. (1 John 1:1)
It was first fellowship with the Lord.
- It does not stop there. This fellowship is meant to be extended to the other believers. (1 John 1:3)
- The blessedness and outcome of this fellowship is the fullness of Joy. (1 John 1:4, Psalm 16:11)
- What is the basis for this kind of fellowship?
- God is Light (righteous and good) and in him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)
Therefore any fellowship with our God must be done with a clean heart.
- How to enjoy fellowship with God
- Spend a personal time with the Lord to strengthen your vertical relationship with God. (Matthew 6:6)
- Spend regular time with other believers to practice horizontal fellowship. The fellowship of spirit –your spirit touching their spirit. (Ephesians 5:18-19)
- Care for the inner flowing if life in tour spirit by going along with the sense of life and peace in the details if your daily life. (Romans 8:6)
- Confess and deal with any sin or offences (1 John 1:7-9)
- Study the word (Ezekiel 3:1-2, Jer. 15:16, 2 Tim. 2:15)
- Serve (1 John 4:20, James 1:27 )
- Pray ( Heb. 4;16, 1 Thess. 5:16-18, Matt. 21:13, Col. 4:2)
HOW TO GET IMTO FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD AND GOD’S PEOPLE
- With God
- Obedience to the gospel.
- Hear the gospel (Romans 10:17)
- Believe in Christ (John 8:24)
iii. Repent of sins (Acts 2:38)
- Confess Christ as the son of God. (Romans 10:9-10)
- Be baptized in water baptism (Acts 2:38, Romans 6:3-4)
- Be baptized of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:1-15)
- God’s people
- Obedience to the same gospel (1 John 1:3, 3 John 5)
GOD’S MEANS OF FELLOWSHIP
- Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. (2 Cor. 13:14, Tit. 3:5, Phil. 2:1)
- Fellowship in the gospel. (Acts 2:42, Phil. 1:5, 1 Thess. 2:13, 1 John 1:1-3)
The believers fellowship was the teachings of the apostles. Being devoted ti our relationship, partnership, companionship and stewardship depends on our devotion to scriptures.
WHY IS FELLOWSHIP IMPORTANT?
- Because you belong to God’s family with other believers.
- Because you need encouragement to grow in the Lord. (2 Thess. 2:15, 1 Cor. 16:13, 1 Samuel 30:6)
- Because you need accountability to grow spiritually.
- Because Christ is present when we fellowship together. (Matthew 18:20)
- Because there is greater power when people pray together. (Eccl. 4:9-12, Matthew 18:19)
- BENEFITS OF FELLOWSHIP
- Fullness of Joy ( 1 John 1:4, Psalm 16:11)
- Draw all the goodness of the Lord (Isaiah 12:3)
- It imparts Divine Strength and stability (Neh. 8:10)
- Power of resistance and Fortitude in times of adversity (Proverbs 24:10)
- Power for exploits (Daniel 11:32)
- Fellowship makes labor effective (Eccl. 4:9-12)
- Transference of virtues (Psalm 133:1-2)
- It provides succor in calamity. (Mark 6:7) and Mutual Edification (Eph. 4:12,29, Romans 14: 3,19, 1 Thess. 5:11)
- Encouragement (Luke 22:32, Hebrews 10:24-25,)
- It helps to express love to one another and it encourages good works
- It leaves impact on believers. (John 13:35)
- Fellowship builds friendship (Acts 2:41-47, John 15:15)
Togetherness builds relationship. Relationship builds fellowship and fellowship builds friendship.