Fellowship

*Edited October 9, 2015.*

When you think of the word “fellowship,” what comes to mind?  Do you think of church events, or relationship with one another?  Fellowship is about sincere relationship with one another.  Fellowship is not about church picnics, potlucks, or conducting small talk in the “fellowship hall” before and after church while snacking on some doughnuts and sipping on orange juice.  These can be used for fellowship, but it goes beyond that.  Fellowship is about real people — real Christians — meeting each other’s real needs and coming together to fulfil the Church mission.  Our key passage to understand Christian fellowship is Acts 2:42-47:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.  And we came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.  And all who believed were together and had all things in common.  And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.  And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all people.  And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Let’s get a little context here (context is everything!).  On the day of Pentecost, St. Peter stood up and proclaimed in the presence of thousands of people that God had risen Jesus Christ from the dead, the same Jesus that they had demanded to be crucified under Pontius Pilate.  On that day, 3,000+ people repented of their sins, and this was the beginning of the first church.  These 3,000 people are who “they” are in the above passage.  St. Luke, the author of Acts, writes that they had devoted themselves to fellowship.  I will be identifying what fellowship is in a moment, but let’s first identify what the mission of the church is.

Jesus gave us the Great Commission, commanding the apostles and all Christians to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).  That is our duty as Christians.  People often complain that we are “pushing” Christianity onto them.  The truth is, they don’t feel forced at all; they just don’t want to hear what we have to say because it opposes their way of living, hence what Jesus says in John 7:7, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify about it that its works are evil.”  The truth is that we’re simply doing what we were commissioned to do over five millennia ago; not sharing the new of Jesus Christ and teaching what He has commanded us to do is doing the opposite of what He has commissioned every one of us to do.  Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19).  This language He used with Peter and Andrew was significant because they were fishermen.  But what did He mean by this?  I understand this to be a metaphor of the Christian duty.  Jesus commanded and taught the apostles to teach people everything they need to know about Him and the will of His Father, our God.  Therefore,  it is our duty to cast out the bait of the Good News of Jesus Christ and pull people in.  So really, unbelievers aren’t being “pushed” upon by our beliefs, for the action of pushing forces you away.  Rather, we are attempting to reel them in — attempting to pull them in, which is to draw someone near.  Like a very large fish on the hook (bloated with arrogance), they fight really hard to escape from the reality of Jesus Christ.

Now, what is true fellowship?  The early Christian Church is often viewed as the highpoint of Christianity, and it’s because of the intense devotion to fellowship they had — devotion to one another.  Going back to Acts, it says that they were devoted  to the apostles’ teaching, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.  These early Christians were devoted to the teaching of the apostles — there were no divisions, no disagreements on doctrine because they “had all things in common” (v. 44).  When we Lutherans confess in the Nicene Creed that “we believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church,” we are declaring that we follow the apostles’ teachings, which sadly not many American churches do today.  (Also, “catholic” in the true sense of the word means all Christians worldwide at all times — past, present, and future.)  Although divisions did not come a little later,  nowadays there is even a wider division and there is a lot of enmity among Christians when it comes to doctrinal details.  The early Christians also practised the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper regularly.  Nowadays, the majority of denominations don’t practise it on a regular basis and most are even misinformed of what the sacrament is.  We Lutherans are blessed to realise the vitality of practising the sacrament on a regular basis.  Some Christians believe it is only a sign.  It is more than that, however.  It is for the forgiveness of sins as well, which is exactly what Jesus meant when He said, “For this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).

The early Christians were also devoted to the prayers, meaning that they had a prayerful life.  It was just a regular part of their daily life.  Because of their prayerful life, it is highly likely that they were praying for one another frequently, which I honestly don’t see a lot of today.  People often say to me, “I’ll pray for you,” and I wonder:  Do they really?  I’m sure many of you can relate.  How often have you told someone that you’ll pray for them, but never followed through because you “forgot”?  If you tell someone you’ll pray for them, keep that promise!  I must admit that I’m guilty of forgetting to pray for someone when I said I would.  This is why I’ve developed the method of having a prayer journal where I write down the person’s name and what I’m supposed to pray for, that way I don’t forget.  (And as a future pastor, this is a great practise!)  If I don’t have it on me, I have a smartphone so I use that easy technology to use the Notes app to jot it down.

The early Christians were also diligent in giving to the poor.  They loved doing that so much that they sold their very possessions and belongings and distributed the proceeds to the poor, each according to their needs.  How often do you give money to a homeless person?  Or even something simpler like buying them a meal, or a cup of coffee if you don’t have any cash on you?  How often do you get rid of your things that you no longer need to the poor — like excess sweatshirts, old clothes, etc.?  Too many people, even Christians, use the excuse, “Well, I don’t know what they’re going to use it for.  I don’t know if they’re going to use it for drugs or alcohol.”  There’s a difference between an explanation and an excuse; that is an excuse.  Did Jesus tell us to only give to the poor when we best determine how they’re going to use it?  Did He tell us to only give to the best intentioned poor person?  No, He did not.  We can never claim to know a person’s mind, especially one we don’t know at all.  It is foolish to assume we know how a homeless person will use the money we’ll give them.  All we can do is hope and pray.  We all know the story of the rich young man — that particular young man who claimed to have done many things for Christ (and don’t’ we all make similar claims?), including having kept the Ten Commandments, and he asked Jesus how he can inherit eternal life.  Jesus replied, “You lack one thing:  go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Mark 10:21).  Selling everything you have is a bit extreme, and because of the times we live in He doesn’t call us to do that today.

Still, however, He doesn’t distinguish whom to give to.  He simply said to give to the poor.  It’s not up to us to distinguish who deserves what.  In fact, none of us deserve anything, not even the redemption of our sins.  Yet Christ still chose to die for the whole world (hence John 3:16), not a select few  whom He felt deserved it.  So how dare we have the audacity to decide which homeless person doesn’t “deserve” our giving.  Likewise, St. Paul writes, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).  Not knowing what they’ll use the money for is a poor excuse.  You’re not omniscient; God is, so why worry about it?  Decide in your heart how much you’ll give, and give that amount.  They’re always grateful even for a little.  Do this not in reluctance or compulsion, but out of love and joy.  It doesn’t happen very often at all, but if God does make it irrevocably clear that He’s calling you to sell everything and follow Him elsewhere, then do so.  If you keep looking for reasons to show someone mercy, you’ll never show them mercy because there will never be a reason.  Mercy doesn’t need a reason to be established.  Just look at god’s infinite mercy on us; we deserve nothing from Him, yet He gives anyway.  We  do not deserve salvation from our sins, yet in His mercy God saved us.  He had no reason to save us other than that He had mercy on us in His love.  So if you keep trying to determine what a homeless person will use the money for, you’ll always be reluctant to do a kind thing and if you do give in reluctance, you do so under compulsion instead of love, joy, and mercy, and not with a cheerful heart.

The early Christians were in so much fellowship with one another that they went to church every day, eating together.  Granted, we’re in much different times now and can’t really afford to go to church every single day because of what our jobs and other responsibilities demand of us.  But even so, we can still put aside time to visit one another and eat together, not only at annual pot locks and a small breakfast  in the fellowship hall before service begins.  Due to their intense fellowship, God “added  to their number day by day those who were being saved” (v. 47).  Their fellowship and immense love for one another caused more and more people to be added to the Church!  That’s pretty amazing.  I have never seen a church so in love with God with so much love for one another with an abundance of fellowship that resulted  in more and more people being added to the church.  I have yet to witness such an amazing account.

Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting  to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”  This is exactly what fellowship is, and also why God requires we go to church.  Fellowship is to cause one another to love people and to do good works as a response to our gifted faith, never neglecting to meet together.  This passage also disputes the argument, “I don’t need to go to church to be a Christian.  I can just do a personal devotion in my home.”  False, God requires it.  As the passage says, we must not neglect meeting together, “as is the habit of some,” which are those who claim they don’t need to go to church.  As God is the Creator, He set order to specific things, one of which is His people meeting together as a Church.  He requires this so that we may encourage and inspire one another in love and do His good works together in order to speak to the world, doing so more and more as we “see the Day drawing near.”  What day is that?  The Last day, which is the day our Lord Jesus Christ returns.

Individualism is widely preached, exhorted, and celebrated in western culture.  Through the influence of the media, music industry, and film industry, we are told that self-sufficiency and independence leads to a prosperous life.  Unfortunately, many Christians have developed this individualistic mindset in their faith (which is indicative of those Christians who think they don’t need to go to church).  We want to keep God all to ourselves; we don’t want to share Him with others, Christian or non-Christian.  We forget that it is God who establishes our prosperity (Psalm 1:1-3); it is not dependent on self-sufficiency, and if it happens to be borne by one’s own works, it never lasts and just leads to misery.  We don’t want to be told how to spend our time or money or what we should think.  I don’t know about you, but before I was Christian I was only concerned about myself.  I only wanted to do what was best for me; I had no concern for others.  As far as I was concerned, I didn’t need God in my life to know what I must and mustn’t do or to give me direction.  You could’ve built a monument to my narcissism.  It wasn’t until the Holy Spirit converted me that I began to think of others more than myself.  And now, I recognise that I need God in my life to know what I must and mustn’t do and that I need Him to give me direction.

The world can’t make up its mind what it wants to do.  God’s way is certain.  Like St. Paul points out, I wouldn’t know what it means to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet” (Romans 7:7).  In other words, we wouldn’t know what it means to sin had the Law not revealed it to us, and we wouldn’t know about forgiveness and freedom from sin had the Gospel not revealed it to us in Jesus Christ.  When you become Christian, it’s not longer about you.  It’s all about the Holy Trinity, and it’s about serving those around you in lovingkindness and doing so through fellowship.