Compiled and Revised by Pastor StepheN MacK HowarD
Just what is fellowship anyway?
I. Fellowship
A. Fellowship is the basis of deep human need and desire.
1. An English Philosopher, Essayist and Statesman by the name of Francis Bacon (1597-1625) once said, “Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.” He had a very good hold on what fellowship meant, but just what does it mean to us and what does it mean in the Bible?
2. The whole process of approach to, and abiding fellowship with, God is summed up in this brief sentence: Access to the Father, through Christ, by the Spirit, by faith.
3. If faith in Christ is the fundamental note of the Christian society, the next is fellowship among the members. This follows from the very nature of faith as just described; for if each believer is vitally joined to Christ, all believers must stand in a living relation to one another. In Paul’s favorite figure, Christians are members one of another because they are members in particular of the body of Christ (Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 12:27). That the Christian society was recognized from the first as a fellowship appears from the name “the brethren,” which is so commonly applied to those who belong to it. In Acts the name is of very frequent occurrence (9:30, etc.), and it is employed by Paul in the epistles of every period of his career (1 Thess 4:10, etc.). Similar testimony lies in the fact that “the koinoônia” (English Versions “fellowship”) takes its place in the earliest meetings of the church side by side with the apostles’ teaching and the breaking of bread and prayers (Acts 2:42). See COMMUNION. The koinoônia at first carried with it a community of goods (Acts 2:44; 4:32), but afterward found expression in the fellowship of ministration (2 Cor 8:4) and in such acts of Christian charity as are inspired by Christian faith (Heb 13:16). In the Lord’s Supper, the other sacrament of the primitive church, the fellowship of Christians received its most striking and most sacred expression. For if baptism was especially the sacrament of faith, the Supper was distinctively the sacrament of love and fellowship—a communion or common participation in Christ’s death and its fruits which carried with it a communion of hearts and spirits between the participants themselves. [International Standard Bible Encyclopedia]
B. Hebrew Words
1. Sod
a) ãBñ
b) From a relatively unused word meaning council or a session, that is, company of persons (in close deliberation); by implication intimacy, consultation, a secret: assembly, counsel, inward, secret (counsel).
(1) Psalms 55:14
(a) In this verse the idea is the worshiping of
once close friends in the house of God with other believers.
C. Greek Words
1. Koinonia
a) κοινωνια
b) From the noun koinonous which means a sharer, partaker or partner which means as a verb partnership, that is, (literally) participation, or (social) intercourse, or (pecuniary) benefaction: (to) communicate (-ation), communion, (contri-), distribution, fellowship.
c) Koinonia is typified in the New Testament by four things:
(1) The Lord’s Supper
(2) Communism or Commonality
(3) Contributions
(4) Cooperation
D. Various New Testament Passages on the idea of fellowship
1. Acts 2:42
a) One of the four activities of the first converts along with devotion to the apostles teaching, breaking bread and prayer.
2. 1 Corinthians 1:9
a) The salvation relationship here is identified as fellowship with Jesus Christ and is based on the faithfulness of God.
3. 2 Corinthians 6:14
a) Here the term is used to show the enmity between light and darkness in the sharpest contrast possible.
4. 2 Corinthians 13:14
a) The indwelling nature of the Holy Spirit in the Christian is shown as a facet of fellowship
5. Galatians 2:9
a) Here we see a uncommon aspect of fellowship where there is an agreement to carry on distinct ministries in the spirit of cooperation
6. Philippians 2:1
a) Another reference to the sharing in the Spirit and the ‘If’ should be translated ‘Since’
7. Philippians 3:10
a) Paul asks to be a partaker of or sharer of Christ’s sufferings
8. Philemon 1:6
a) Paul asks in a prayer that the fellowship of their faith would become more effective as the knowledge increases of every good thing available in Christ.
9. 1 John 1:3
a) Fellowship takes place for every believer in two real areas Physical and Spiritual. First we fellowship with Christ, allowing us to fellowship with other Christians and ultimately with God the Father.
10. 1 John 1:6 & 7
a) One can lie about his fellowship with God. And additionally walking in the light as Christ himself was in the light cooperates with our fellowship with one another to the cleansing from sin by Jesus’ blood.
1. The child’s game, “Here is the Church…”
a) Sometimes I wonder why we teach our children what we do.
b) The church is not the building, nor a piece of property
2. The Misunderstanding of ‘Church’
a) English used the word ‘kurk’ to indicate a partial of land
b) When we ‘go to church’ we are not going to a place but a people
3. The Truth about the ‘Church’
a) The Early Church
(1) It seems evident from the New Testament that Jesus gave His disciples no formal prescriptions for the organization of the church. In the first days after Pentecost they had no thought of separating themselves from the religious life of Israel, and would not realize the need of any distinct organization of their own. The temple-worship was still adhered to (Acts 2:46; 3:1), though it was supplemented by apostolic teaching, by prayer and fellowship, and by the breaking of bread (Acts 2:42, 46). Organization was a thing of gradual growth suggested by emerging needs, and the differentiation of function among those who were drawn into the service of the church was due to the difference in the gifts bestowed by God upon the church members (1 Cor 12:28). At first the Twelve themselves, as the immediate companions of Jesus throughout His ministry and the prime witnesses of the Christian facts and especially of the resurrection (compare Acts 1:21, 22), were the natural leaders and teachers of the community. Apart from this, the earliest evidence of anything like organization is found in the distinction drawn by the Twelve themselves between the ministry of the word and the ministry of tables (Acts 6:2, 4)—a distinction which was fully recognized by Paul (Rom 12:6, 8; 1 Cor 1:17; 9:14; 12:28), though he enlarged the latter type of ministry so as to include much more than the care of the poor. The two kinds of ministry, as they meet us at the first, may broadly be distinguished as the general and prophetic on the one hand, the local and practical on the other. [International Standard Bible Encyclopedia]
1. Here are some of the areas that effective fellowship is required:
a) At Church
b) At Home
c) At Work
d) At School
2. In these areas it is important to remember that the focus of your fellowship is evident in three areas:
a) Being
b) Doing
c) Going
3. These three areas of Being, Doing and Going might be enhanced in the fellowship area by:
(1) Watch what you say
(2) Refuse to hear gossip
(3) Having integrity
(4) Singing Out Loud
(5) Worship in Spirit and in Truth
(6) Prayer
(7) The Lord’s Supper
(8) Sunday School
(9) Take someone out to lunch
(10) Visiting the sick
(11) Attending conferences
(12) Be mindful of your responsibilities
(13) Learn to communicate effectively
(14) Start a Bible Study
(15) Set with someone who is ‘unacceptable’
(16) Standing up for truth
G. Original Fellowship: From God to Society
1. God fellowships with Himself before anything was created
2. God chose fellowships with man through the creation
3. God fellowshipped with man in the person of Jesus Christ
4. God fellowships with man through the Holy Spirit
1. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”
a) What is really incredible about this passage is that application of this occurs with Christians as well as Non-Christians. Paul goes on to say, “Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” It is bad enough when Christians run with the sinners and are corrupted, because it shows contempt for Salvation. Here Paul seems to be talking to Christians who are corrupting each other showing contempt for the character and attributes of God.
2. The Illustration of Wine and Sewage.
a) When I was a kid my dad asked me a question. He said, “Son, when you dump 1 cup of wine into a gallon of sewage what do you get?” I said, “Sewage.” He said, “What if you put a cup of sewage into a 1000 gallons of wine?” After thinking it through for a moment I responded, “Sewage.”
3. 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
a) To sum up here (scientific friends forgive my paraphrase) the second law of thermodynamics states that as matter and energy interact the two will suffer system loss if no new power is put into the system.
b) This is demonstrated and best summed, as “Things will tend to get worse and worse instead of better and better in a closed system.”
c) There is a word for this phenomenon, “Entropy”
d) This is demonstrated best in things like:
(1) A Clock will run down unless you provide more energy.
(2) People will die if they do not eat
(3) Relationships will vary and tend toward destruction if positive infusion of activity is not initiated.
4. In fellowship we are not talking about befriending the “bad apple”
J. What is Love and what deserves it?
1. Love is identified in the English language with only one word:
a) Love
(1) It is used as follows:
(a) I love hotdogs
(b) I love my wife.
(2) I do not love hotdogs the same way I love my wife or my wife the way I love hotdogs. So there is a problem with how we understand love.
2. Love is identified in Greek by five different terms.
a) Ludas
b) Storgay
c) Phileo
d) Eros
e) Agape
3. These five terms indicate the following expressions in relation to how we see love:
a) Ludas:
(1) From where we get our term lewd. It means to crave the body of another person or thing in a very raw way. This term is never used in the Bible.
b) Storgay:
(1) This is family love or love shared for the human race in which we are a part of. This term is never used in the Bible.
c) Phileo:
(1) This term is indicative of befriendment and deals with the emotions shared as you relate on the soul level.
d) Eros:
(1) This is the physical love shared between man and woman, sexual love.
e) Agape:
(1) The highest form of love, this is self-sacrificing. This is how God loves us and we are to love each other.
K. The Fellowship Offering of the Old Testament
1. Fellowship in the Old Testament was demonstrated by the way that people interacted with each other. It is specific in the area of sacrifices brought yearly to the place demonstrated by scripture. There are different classifications of Sacrifices and we are so far removed from these animal sacrifices that they are hard for us to understand. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia offers the divisions from the following scholars:
a)
Maimonides – who we credit with ordering and
structuring of the laws of the OT – was
among the first to classify them, and he divided them into two kinds:
(1) Those on behalf of the whole congregation, fixed by statute, time, number and ritual being specified. This would include burnt, meal and peace offerings with their accompaniments.
(2) Those on behalf of the individual, whether by virtue of his connection with the community or as a private person. These would be burnt offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings with their accompaniments.
b) W.R. Smith and Others classify them as:
(1) Honorific, or designed to render homage, devotion, or adoration, such as burnt, meal and peace offerings;
(2) Piacular, designed to expiate or make atonement for the errors of the people, i.e. burnt offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings;
(3) Communistic, intended to establish the bond between the god and the worshipper, such as peace offerings
c) Oehler divides them into two classes, namely:
(1) Those which assume that the covenant relation is undisturbed, such as peace offerings;
(2) Those intended to do away with any disturbance in the relation and to set it right, such as burnt, sin and guilt offerings.
d) Professor Paterson and Others divide them into three:
(1) Animal sacrifices, burnt offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings;
(2) Vegetable sacrifices, meal offerings, shewbread, etc.;
(3) Liquid and incense offerings; wine, oil, water, etc.
e) H. M. Wiener offers a more suggestive and scientific division (Essays on Pentateuchal Criticism, 200 f):
(1) Customary lay offerings, such as had from time immemorial been offered on rude altars of earth or stone, without priest, used and regulated by Moses and in more or less general use until the exile, namely, burnt offerings, meal offerings, and peace offerings;
(2) Statutory individual offerings, introduced by Moses, offered by laymen with priestly assistance and at the religious capital, i.e. burnt offerings, peace offerings, meal offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings;
(3) Statutory national offerings introduced by Moses and offered by the priest at the religious capital, namely, burnt, meal, peace and sin offerings. [International Standard Bible Encyclopedia]
2. These classifications show us the great diversity in the Old Testament sacrificial system.
3. The interesting thing was is that the sacrifice was not to be wasted, it was to be eaten by the people and the priests
4. A Specific Fellowship and Peace Offering included the following symbolisms and thoughts:
a) In Leviticus 3:1-17 & 7:11-38 we see:
(1) An expression of gratitude and desire for fellowship with God
(2) The blood was poured out on the alter as a ‘pleasing aroma to God’
(3) Done by the bringing of a unblemished ox, lamb or goat
(4) The fat was burned of from the abdomen, kidneys, lobe and the tail
(5) The poor only brought birds and it was customary for them to share in the overabundance of the rest of Israel, God’s plan in provision for the poor and commonality of peoples regardless of class, race, position and local.
L. The Fellowship Offerings of the New Testament
1. Baptism
a) Three Aspects of Baptism in the Bible
(1) Of the Proselyte
(a) In order for a person to come into the Jewish faith they had to be identified (michvah in Hebrew and baptize in Greek) with the nation
(2) Of John the Baptist
(a) In baptizing Jews John was identifying those who were repenting as the kingdom was coming online.
(3) Of Obedience
(a) Jesus was baptizes to be the identified agent with which we are to identify each other. Jesus being a Jew, and not needing repentance offered us this example of obedience.
b) Matthew 28:19
(1) In this passage we are told to identify (baptize) each other. From that point on we identify by our love according to 1 John 4:7-8.
2. The Lord’s Supper
a) 1 Corinthians 11:23-32
(1) Right Heart
(2) Cup
(3) Bread
M. The Essential Elements of Knowledge in Fellowship
1. Hebrews 6:1-2
“Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits.”
a) Consider for a moment the Star of David. Two interconnected triangles pointing in opposing directions. This symbol is a good descriptor for the opposing aspects including in Hebrews 6:1-2. For example:
(1) The Faith Aspects
(a) Repentance from dead works
(b) Turning toward faith in God
(2) The Fellowship Aspects
(a) Washings
(b) Laying on of Hands
(3) The Future Aspects
(a) Resurrection of the Dead
(b) Eternal Judgment
b) The fellowship aspect includes two important items that should be examined further:
(1) Washings
(a) Here again understand that washing is the identifying
(b) It covers and includes cleanliness
(2) Laying on of hands
(a) This is another form of identifying. It is for believers and shows:
(i) The setting aside to a specific task
(ii) The dual directionality of fellowship
(a) The Sending hands
(b) The Receiving hands
N.
Disfellowshiping is a legitimate form of discipline:
1.
Look at Jesus words in Matthew 16:15-18, “If your brother sins£, go and show him his fault in
private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16“But if he does not listen to you, take one or two
more with you, so that by the mouth of
two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. 17“If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and
if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and
a tax collector. 18“Truly I say to you, whatever you
bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth
shall have been loosed in heaven.”
a)
This passage is dealing with Believers
b)
It includes how to meet with individual sins
(1) Stage
1
(a) Take
it to him directly
(2) Stage
2
(a) Take
another brother with you on the principle of two or three witnesses
(3) Stage
3
(a) Take
it to the church (ekklesia or assembly) and put him out of fellowship
with that assembly.
c)
Notice the
phrase ‘shall have been.’ We do not
fellowship OR disfellowship beyond the basis of scripture. Our opinions should never be the basis of
such important decisions. This means
that everyone must be in sync with the inerrancy of scripture and of a common
mind about its application.
2.
Look at excommunication or exclusion from church fellowship as a means of personal discipline, or
church purification, or both.
a)
Its germs have
been found in (1) The Mosaic “ban” or “curse” (íø†ç•, hÖeôrem, “devoted”), given over entirely to God’s
use or to destruction (Lev 27:29); (2) The “cutting off,” usually by death,
stoning of certain offenders, breakers of the Sabbath (Ex 31:14) and others
(Lev 17:4; Ex 30:22-38); (3) The exclusion of the leprous from the camp (Lev
13:46; Nu 12:14). At the restoration (Ezr 10:7, 8), the penalty of disobedience
to Ezra’s reforming movements was that “all his substance should be forfeited (hÖeôrem), and himself separated from the assembly of
the captivity.” Nehemiah’s similar dealing with the husbands of heathen women
helped to fix the principle. The New Testament finds a well-developed synagogal
system of excommunication, in two, possibly three, varieties or stages. éecð„, nidduôy, for the first offense, forbade the bath,
the razor, the convivial table, and restricted social intercourse and the
frequenting of the temple. It lasted thirty, sixty, or ninety days. If the
offender still remained obstinate, the “curse,” hÖeôrem, was formally pronounced upon him by a
council of ten, and he was shut out from the intellectual, religious and social
life of the community, completely severed from the congregation. àú˜nÈLÛ, shammaôthaô, supposed by some to be a third and final stage,
is probably a general term applied to both nidduôy and hÖeôremú. We meet the system in Jn 9:22: “If any man
should confess him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue” (Pðïóõíáãùãüò, aposunagoôgoñs); Jn 12:42: “did not confess … lest they should
be put out of the synagogue”; and Jn 16:2: “put you out of the synagogue.” In
Lk 6:22 Christ may refer to the three stages: “separate you from their company
(Pöïñßóùóéí, aphorŒñsoôsin), and reproach you (“íåéäßóùóéí, oneidŒñsoôsin = hÖeôrem, “malediction”), and cast out your name as
evil (dêâÜëùóéí, ekbañloôsin).” It is doubtful whether an express
prescription of excommunication is found in our Lord’s words (Mt 18:15-19). The
offense and the penalty also seem purely personal: “And if he refuse to hear
the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican,”
out of the pale of association and converse. Yet the next verse might imply
that the church also is to act: “Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye
shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,” etc. But this latter, like Mt
16:19, seems to refer to the general enunciations of principles and policies
rather than to specific ecclesiastical enactments. On the whole, Jesus seems
here to be laying down the principle of dignified personal avoidance of the
obstinate offender, rather than prescribing ecclesiastical action. Still,
personal avoidance may logically correspond in proper cases to excommunication
by the church. 2 Thess 3:14: “Note that man, that ye have no company with him”;
Tit 3:10: “A factious man … avoid” (American Revised Version margin); 2 Jn
1:10: “Receive him not into your house,” etc., all inculcate discreet and
faithful avoidance but not necessarily excommunication, though that might come
to be the logical result. Paul’s “anathemas” are not to be understood as
excommunications, since the first is for an offense no ecclesiastical tribunal
could well investigate: 1 Cor 16:22, “If any man loveth not the Lord, let him
be
anathema”; the second touches Paul’s deep relationship to his Lord: Rom 9:3, “I
myself … anathema from Christ”; while the third would subject the apostle or an
angel to ecclesiastical censure: Gal 1:8, 9, “Though we, or an angel … let him
be anathema.” Clear, specific instances of excommunication or directions
regarding it, however, are found in the Pauline and Johannine writings. In the
case of the incestuous man (1 Cor 5:1-12), at the instance of the apostle (“I
verily, being absent in body but present in spirit”), the church, in a formal
meeting (“In the name of our Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together”), carrying
out the apostle’s desire and will (“and my spirit”), and using the power and
authority conferred by Christ (“and with the power of our Lord Jesus”),
formally cut off the offender from its fellowship, consigning (relinquishing?)
him to the power of the prince of this world (“to deliver such a one unto
Satan”). Further, such action is enjoined in other cases: “Put away the wicked
man from among yourselves.” 2 Cor 2:5-11 probably refers to the same case,
terminated by the repentance and restoration of the offender. ‘Delivering over
to Satan’ must also include some physical ill, perhaps culminating in death; as
with Simon Magus (Acts 8:20), Elymas (Acts 13:11), Ananias (Acts 5:5). 1 Tim
1:20: “Hymenaeus and Alexander … that they might be taught not to blaspheme,”
is a similar case of excommunication accompanied by judicial and disciplinary
physical ill. In 3 Jn 1:9, 10 we have a case of excommunication by a faction in
control: “Diotrephes … neither doth he himself receive … and them that would he
… casteth out of the church.” Excommunication in the New Testament church was
not a fully developed system. The New Testament does not clearly define its
causes, methods, scope or duration. It seems to have been incurred by heretical
teaching (1 Tim 1:20) or by factiousness (Tit 3:10 (?)); but the most of the
clear undoubted cases in the New Testament are for immoral or un-Christian
conduct (1 Cor 5:1, 11, 13; perhaps also 1 Tim 1:20). It separated from church
fellowship but not necessarily from the love and care of the church (2 Thess 3:15
(?)). It excluded from church privileges, and often, perhaps usually, perhaps
always, from social intercourse (1 Cor 5:11). When pronounced by the apostle it
might be accompanied by miraculous and punitive or disciplinary physical
consequences (1 Cor 5:5; 1 Tim 1:20). It was the act of the local church,
either with (1 Cor 5:4) or without (1 Cor 5:13; 3 Jn 1:10) the concurrence of
an apostle. It might possibly be pronounced by an apostle alone (1 Tim 1:20),
but perhaps not without the concurrence and as the mouthpiece of the church.
Its purpose was the amendment of the offender: “That the spirit may be saved in
the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor 5:5); and the preservative purification of
the church: “Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye
are unleavened” (1 Cor 5:7). It might, as appears, be terminated by repentance
and restoration (2 Cor 2:5-11). It was not a complex and rigid ecclesiastical
engine, held in
terrorem over the soul, but
the last resort of faithful love, over which hope and prayer still hovered.
[International Standard Bible Encyclopedia]
II.
Conclusion
A.
Fellowship is
an important aspect of the Christian life.
B.
Fellowship is
based on common belief
C.
Fellowship
includes
1.
Meals
2.
Activities
3.
Grouping
D.
Fellowship for
Christians is grounded in Agape love
E.
Fellowship can
be withdrawn for violation of scripture
Pray