 Fellowship
In the last installment of this blog, we discussed the importance of the home and family for the passing on of the faith generationally. Of course we want to see the gospel go far beyond already believing families, but we certainly desire to see those brought to the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4) following Christ faithfully for generations to come. But our immediate families are not the only group where we should find close relationships in the Lord. It is amazing how two people who have never met can connect almost instantly when they discover that they are both true believers in Christ. I am sure sociologists could offer many theories relating our mutually held beliefs and common lifestyles to explain this phenomenon. However, I think it is the fact that both people are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and even if parts of their lifestyles and cultures may be different, the unity is found in their shared love for Christ, trust in His word, and experience of saving grace. In the Scripture, we are told that at the very beginning the church was focused and devoted to fellowship. I know we love to emphasize doctrine and we should! But in the book of Acts (2:42) it seems that doctrine, breaking of bread (Lord’s Supper), prayer and fellowship are equal in importance and devotion by the church. The reality is that no church can be strong and healthy without devotion to the truth of God revealed in the Scripture and taught authoritatively in the church, but neither can a church be a healthy, organic, spiritual body without genuine biblical fellowship. This is one of my favorite topics so I may end up repeating some things you have heard before, but we all need to hear it again I’m sure. Dr. Donald Whitney has a very helpful definition of Christian or Biblical fellowship in his book on Spiritual Disciplines. He says that biblical fellowship is more than Christians socializing because it involves talking about God and the things of God. The church is where like minded and life hearted believers enjoy true fellowship which is a blessing to the believers and glorifying to God. Meeting Together The church can be defined in terms of the universal or invisible church which consists of all believers of all time. But in terms of our experience and the usual way that the New Testament is speaking about church the emphasis is on the local church. Believers ought to think first about the brothers and sisters with whom they meet weekly when we think about the church. The church is these people whom I love and who love me. The church is these people who we pray with, and sing with, and study with, and share with, and eat with, week in and week out. When the Apostle Paul is dealing with the problems in the Corinthian church surrounding their observance of the Lord’s Supper (remember their sin concerning the Lord's Supper had even the punishment of death), in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 Paul keeps pointing to when you “come together.” The sin of the Corinthians was not a blasphemous dismissal of the bread and wine but a breakdown of fellowship and sharing in the body of the church. We also see that in the letter to the Hebrews we are instructed to keep meeting together and even more as we see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:24-25). Regardless of how we interpret the day that we see approaching, this text is certainly an encouragement for Christians to meet together more not less. And when we meet together I see no good reason from the Scripture why we would not devote ourselves to the Apostle’s doctrine, the Lord’s Supper, fervent prayer and deep biblical fellowship (Acts 2:42). The Temple of God Again, the issue in understanding the church involves a right view of the shift from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. The Old Covenant was marked by physical forms, functions, and facilities that pointed forward to greater spiritual realities contained in the promises given by Christ. This means that while God met with His people in specific places in the Old Testament such as the Tabernacle and later the Temple in Jerusalem, now we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) and the spiritual house in which the Lord dwells on earth (1 Peter 2:4-10). Since this is the case, then we all need to regularly and weekly (at least every Lord’s day) gather with our local church for the unique fellowship of the saints and the unique presence of our Lord!
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