Devoted to the Fellowship

Introduction: Don’t Rush the Text

Well, our text for tonight is just that, “And they devoted themselves to the fellowship.”

You know, it’s really easy to rush into texts with all sorts of assumptions, with all sorts of desires, and therefore get off track, or we can wanna rush to the application and say, “Oh, fellowship, yep, great, let’s just smash it out.” But the problem is if we do that, we have a tendency of falling into one of 2 different areas.

Firstly, we can come with wrong assumptions and end up going in the wrong direction. It’s a little bit like the time I went and did a pastoral visit. I contacted the person, and they said to me, “Where do you live?” And they said number 173 Great South Road. And I went, “Great.” And so I went to 173 Great South Road, Papakura because I thought they lived in Papakura. But it turns out it was Great South Road, Manukau. And so I get there and I knock on the door, and this Indian person who looked nothing like the Anglo-Saxon person I was going to visit answered the door. I clearly realized I had made a terrible assumption. I had to call them up and say, “Hey, I’m here,” but turns out, you’re not because I’m at the wrong house. Wrong assumptions, you end up in the wrong place, right?

So the other area we can fall into is by rushing into application and sort of skipping over the foundation and the motivation, we end up getting excited but not doing it. Or we just don’t bother. We hear the good things and we go, “Oh, those are all lovely ideas and lovely thoughts,” but we don’t do them because we lack the biblical basis with which to act.

And so it’s important for us to lay a solid foundation and a biblical motivation behind the fellowship in order to understand how we ought to devote ourselves to the fellowship of God. And we’re gonna do that by asking 2 very important questions, and then we’ll seek to have some application on the end.

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Question 1: What Is “the Fellowship”?

They devoted themselves to the fellowship. Well, what is the fellowship?

You’ll notice that they don’t devote themselves to fellowship. Wonder if you pick up the difference between devoting yourself to fellowship and the fellowship. You see, in English, we use fellowship in 2 ways, don’t we? We can use it as a verb—something you do—or we can use it as a noun, it is something. He doesn’t use a verb here. In fact, all of the 4 things in our list that they devote themselves to, they’re all nouns. They’re all objects. They’re all things. And so they devote themselves to a thing called the fellowship.

Now, this is really important because often when you hear this text talked about or when you hear people talk about this type of stuff, they’re really talking about the verb. And so they’ll say, “We’re going to do some fellowship.” So what does that mean? When you hear fellowship, you think maybe shared lunch or you think getting together over a barbecue or you think the thing we do after the service. Now, all of those are good, and all of those are important, and all of those things the church does, but it’s not the thing that Luke’s talking about.

So what is Luke talking about when he says, “The fellowship“?

The fellowship that he’s talking about is the visible manifestation of the invisible church.

Okay? I know that’s wordy, but let me say it again. The fellowship is the visible manifestation, showing of the invisible church.

Now we confess, we confessed this last week in the Apostles Creed and in the Nicene Creed we confess it too, that we believe in what? One holy Catholic and Apostolic church. Now, when we confess one holy catholic church, I’ve said this many times before but I’ll say it again, we’re not saying we believe in one Roman Catholic Church. We’re saying we believe in a universal church. The invisible church. The church throughout all the ages from beginning to eternity under Christ. Every true believer. Or you might call it the elect. Every saved individual, whether living or dead, in the presence of God right now, that is the invisible church.

And so when we say this is a visible manifestation that he’s talking about of the invisible church, he’s talking about a particular group or showing of this church throughout the ages.

God’s Historical Manifestations

Now God, in his wisdom, has done this all throughout history. He has manifested the invisible church in different ways at different times.

• Cain and Abel → Seth: Cain murders his brother, and then Eve gets a new son, calls him Seth. And then it says at the end of the chapter, “And then, at these days, they began to call upon the name of the Lord.” What is that? It’s a reference to a visible showing, a manifestation of the invisible church. Here was a gathering of God’s elect coming together to praise God, to call upon him as one people.
• The family of Abraham: A land filled with moon worshipers and God comes to Abraham and says to him, “I’ve chosen you. Come out from your people. I’m gonna make you a people. Follow me to where I lead you.” And what happens? A visible manifestation is born, a family is born.
• The nation of Israel: What were they to be? They were to be a display of the invisible church, a display of the glory of God. They were a gathering of God’s people.
• The church today: Every single gathering of the elect children of God is a manifestation of a glorious truth that there is an invisible church throughout the ages that exists. This is why we say “Glorious things of thee are spoken.” Because something wonderful is being displayed.

And in eternity, the final, most glorious moment will be when the entire elect are gathered in. Think about it. Imagine being the last guy that gets saved. You get saved, and then immediately Jesus comes back. And what happens? The invisible church is fully manifested in the presence of the new heavens and the new earth. But up ’til then, it’s pocket visibility, right? Pockets are shown around the world, whether it’s here in Karaka or whether it’s in China, having a cake party on Sunday. Wherever it is, under persecution or freedom, every gathering of God’s believers is a visible manifestation.

A Declaration of Christ’s Victory

And the wonderful thing about this is, it’s not just a visible manifestation like, “Oh, here’s some people from the invisible church,” but it’s actually a statement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think this gathering here tonight is a beautiful illustration of this.

Up ’til 2 weeks ago, what biblical gospel witness existed here? And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the light has sparked. A manifestation of God’s invisible church has been brought about.

And not just a manifestation, but a declaration of hope in the promise of God, “I will build my church in enemy occupied territory.” The gates of hell, right? “I will build my church in the gates of hell and it will never overthrow it.”

You see every “The Fellowship” is a testimony of God’s faithfulness in Christ to repel the kingdom of darkness and to cause the Kingdom of God to come.

And so let me just tell you something. This gathering really matters because it is a testimony of the faithfulness of God to build His kingdom in the darkness. And it exists like a light, like a lamp in the darkness, heralding into the darkness that there is a place for which sinners may flee.

And so the fellowship is the manifestation of Christ’s kingdom. The church is what we call the gathering of God’s people. But it’s so much more than just a gathering. It’s so much more than just we need somewhere convenient to meet. It’s a declaration of the very power of God.

And so when they devoted themselves to the fellowship, they were devoting themselves to the Kingdom of God being advanced in the midst of darkness. I mean, you think about them, it was just 3,000 people in the entirety of Israel surrounded by Roman enemy forces, and yet they gathered together to honor God and trust in Christ to do it.

So firstly, what is the fellowship? The fellowship is the manifestation of the invisible church.

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Question 2: What Does It Mean to Be Included in the Fellowship?

You see, you devote yourself to the fellowship but it’s really significant to understand that you cannot devote yourself to the fellowship unless you’re part of the fellowship.

So what does it mean to actually be part of the fellowship? We’re not asking about membership. We’re not asking, you know, how do I sign a piece of paper? Or how do I join the church? But how do I belong? What does it mean for me to belong to the fellowship of God’s people? ‘Cause it doesn’t mean just attending church on Sunday.

This word for fellowship’s a fascinating word. It’s, in Greek it’s koinonia and it’s used in a plethora of different ways. And when you look at the different ways it’s used, it paints for you a picture of what it means to truly belong to the fellowship, to be a part of this. And let me just highlight 4 things that are essential components to being part of the fellowship.

1. Fellowship with the Triune God

Firstly, being part of the fellowship of the church, the fellowship of God’s people, means being in fellowship with the triune God. It’s a necessity. You can’t be part of the fellowship and not be in fellowship with God. It doesn’t work.

And so in the scriptures, in 1 John, John will say to his people, “We’re writing this to you that you might have fellowship with Him.” And he’s talking about the Father. “I want you to have fellowship with the Father.”

Paul can say to the Corinthians, “God has brought us into fellowship with His Son.”

And Paul can write to the Corinthians again and say, “May the grace of God, the love of the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

So it’s essential for you to understand that to be part of the fellowship, the church, is to be in fellowship with God, the triune God.

How Does This Happen?

Well, what did Christ come in his flesh to do? To reconcile man to God, right? Ephesians 2: “In his flesh, Jesus reconciled man to God and Jew and Gentile together.”

And so in his redemptive work, Christ himself is the reconciler so that we can have fellowship with Him, because we were what? At one time we were enemies, but now we’ve been made friends, sons, daughters of the living God.

And the way this works, and it’s very high, and can be hard to grab hold of, because it’s a spiritual truth beyond our comprehension, but what happens is when we partake in everything that Christ has accomplished, we are united in him.

So you think of Paul saying, “Well, we’re united in his death and in his resurrection.” We’re united to him and we receive all of the blessings of God, not because they’re given to us like a package, like a present that we open up that’s separate from God, but they come to us in Christ.

And so because we’re joined in union with Christ, who’s Christ in perfect fellowship with? The Godhead, right? God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have dwelled for eternity in perfect love and fellowship together.

And because we are in Christ, we are now part of that fellowship. And so we are as much, and I mean this with all reverence, we are as much in fellowship with God as the second person of the Trinity, the God-man, Christ Jesus our Lord, because we’ve been joined to him.

And so we come to Christ, and then we enter into fellowship with God.

2. Partaking in the Benefits of Christ

Secondly, it means partaking in the benefits of Christ that he gives the fellowship.

What are the 2 benefits that Christ gives the fellowship?

a. Baptism

Firstly, baptism. Do you remember the words that Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 28? You go and baptize them. But what do you baptize them into? The name.

What’s really striking about that statement is if you go back to Numbers 6 and the Aaronic blessing, the Lord says to the priests, “When you bless the people, put my name upon them,” and then he gives them the blessing.

And then Jesus, at the end, blesses his disciples. Remember? He lifts up his hands and he blesses them just before his ascension, and he says, “Put my name upon them.” And what name is it? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And so when you enter into the fellowship, what you enter into is a name, a new name, a triune name, because you’ve become a child of God, and so you’ve received the baptism, the mark of being a child of God.

b. The Lord’s Supper

But then the other one is the supper, and so Paul can say in 1 Corinthians, “When you partake of the cup” — now, that word partake is the same word as fellowship — “When you have the fellowship of the cup, you have the fellowship of Jesus Christ.”

That’s why, this is one of the reasons why we partake in the Lord’s supper regularly, because every time we do, we are entering into the benefits of belonging to the fellowship of God.

3. Fellowship with One Another

Thirdly, when we enter into the fellowship, we enter into the fellowship with one another.

And so 1 John again, he writes to them and he says to them, “I want you to have fellowship with God and I want you to have fellowship with one another,” because the 2 are intricately combined.

And this is really important. The reason why they devote themselves to the fellowship, the visible manifestation, is because they recognize that every single person in this visible fellowship is in fellowship with God, and united to Christ, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

So, 1 John 5, to say, “I love God, but I don’t love my brother,” would be absolutely insane, because God is in your brother.

And so this motivates us to do the application that we get to shortly. It motivates us to give ourselves because we recognize that the people we’re in fellowship with are people that are in fellowship with God.

4. Forsaking Fellowship with the World, Flesh, and Devil

Now lastly, to be part of the fellowship also means to forsake fellowship with the world, the flesh, and the devil.

You remember that word of Jesus when he says to his disciple, “Anyone who loves his mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, son, daughter, yes, even himself more than me is not worthy to be my disciple.” It’s in Matthew and Luke.

Why does he say that? Because to be in fellowship with God means to not be in fellowship with the world. And so we leave the world behind when we join the family of God. It’s not that we don’t physically know it, because what does Jesus say? “I’m not praying that you take them out of the world.” But our mindset and our heart of belonging sees ourselves more and more as time goes on as belonging to the fellowship rather than belonging to the world. The old is fading away and the new is coming, because a day is dawning when there will no longer be the world as we think of it right now, that presence of darkness.

a. The Flesh

We get rid of the flesh. There’s a striking, very striking passage in 1 Corinthians 6:9–20, where there’s a young man in the church who’s sleeping with his stepmother. And Paul writes to condemn the church and to tell them to kick him out, and he says this striking comment. He says, “Do you not know that when you go into a prostitute, you take Christ with you, you join Christ to that prostitute?” Because you’re joined to Christ, right? So why would you go to sin? Why would you return to fleshliness taking Christ with you?

‘Cause if you think about it physically, if you’re joined, if you think about a Siamese twin, Siamese twin A gets married to someone. Well, they can’t just get rid of Siamese twin B, can they? They say, “Well, I’m married now, and we’re gonna do our marital business.” Well, you can’t just get rid of Siamese twin B. They’re stuck to you. Paul says, “You are in Christ, you’re joined with Christ, and you’re taking Christ into the brothel.”

So fellowship, belonging to the fellowship means putting sin to death, because we’re now devoted to a newness of life rather than to evil.

b. The Devil

And then lastly, it means forsaking the devil. Remember those words in Ephesians where it says that the devil is the prince of the power of the air? And he’s the one that is deceiving everyone. He is the ruler of the nations, we’re told at times. He is no longer our lord.

You see, when we come into the kingdom of light, we are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the beloved Son, Colossians says. And so we have a new ruler.

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Summary: The Fellowship in Exodus & Ephesians

And this whole concept is summarized really beautifully for us in Exodus and in Ephesians.

• Exodus 20 – The giving of the law: You know, people often think of how legalistic the giving of the law is, and that it’s like a works-based salvation-y type thing, and aren’t we glad we got Jesus? The Lord says to his people, “You were slaves in Egypt, but I redeemed you, so now live like this.” What’s he saying? “You were this, so you were of the world, the flesh, and the devil dwelling in Egypt, but I’ve redeemed you out of Egypt, so now I’ve set you free to live as part of the fellowship of God, to be part of the visible manifestation of the people of God.”
• Ephesians 2: “You were dead in your transgressions.” (Flesh) “You once followed the passions of the world, and you were following the prince of the power of the air, but God, by his grace, made you alive in Christ Jesus.” And then you get down to verse 10, and what does it say? “that you are God’s workmanship.” In other words, go and do good works. Do the things of the Lord. Because you’re now part of the fellowship of God. You’re no longer part of the dominion of darkness.

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Why Devote Ourselves?

And so what we see in these 2 things, in the reality of the fellowship of God is a visible manifestation of God, of God’s kingdom, of the invisible church breaking into the darkness in our midst.

And when we understand all that that means for us as God’s people—belonging to God, belonging to God’s people, putting off the old things—we start to see and taste something of why we devote ourselves to the church, why we devote ourselves to the fellowship, and why the early church did.

You see, the early church and we rightly look out there at the domain of darkness and we say, “I want nothing to do with that. I want no part with the world, the flesh, and the devil. But, oh, how I want to be part of the kingdom of God.”

And where do I find the kingdom of God? It’s not out there in a tree. I find it in the visible manifestation of the invisible church. This is where the kingdom of God is. And so we give ourselves to it. Every individual Christian, part of the invisible gathering, part of the invisible church, is part of the kingdom of God and we, so we give ourselves to them.

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Practical Exhortations: How Do We Devote Ourselves?

1. Devote yourself to this particular manifestation of the invisible church. Because by God’s providence, this is where He’s placed you. And if He had placed you somewhere else, I would tell you to give it all to there. But the Lord has brought you here, and so devote yourself to this particular manifestation. 1 Samuel 22 – David runs away from Saul to the cave of Adullam. His parents, his family, his friends, and all who were in distress came out to him, and he was their commander. What happened? This little, visible manifestation of the invisible church was advancing the kingdom of God in the cave of Adullam. And the people there gave themselves to David and to the kingdom of God.
2. Devote yourself with humility to unity. See, there’s not 3 visible manifestations here, right? How many fellowships is there in this room right now? There’s one. And so we long and labor and strive to see the one fellowship united together and we look for any opportunity to draw nearer to one another for unity. But the only way that can happen is if we are clothed in humility, thinking of others more highly than ourselves. Because as long as there’s haughtiness, there is no unity, right? If I think myself to be the greatest person in the room, we will never be united. Philippians 2, Ephesians 4.
3. Devote yourself to the weak, the sick, the infirm, those in prison. Do you remember those words of Jesus? “If you give a cup of water to one of these, you do it for me.” And don’t you just love it that people get to heaven and they say to Jesus, “Why am I here?” And Jesus says, “Because you fed me and you clothed me, and you visited me in prison, and you cared for me when I was sick.” And what do they say? “When did we do that?” He said, “Well, whenever you did it to the least of one of my brothers.” You see, every single time you serve one of the weak, one of the marginalized, you serve Christ. So let us strive to find the weak that need help, because that is what it means to belong to the fellowship of God.
4. Devote yourself to generosity. One of the things that comes up time and time again in the Book of Acts is generosity.
   • Acts 2: They sold all their possessions and gave it.
   • Acts 4:34–35: “There was not a needy person among them.” That’s a striking thought, right? Not a needy person among them. Why? Because they sold everything they had.
   It’s a theme throughout the New Testament. So in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul talks about a famine in Jerusalem. And he writes to the Church of Corinth. He says, “We’re gonna come and we’re gonna get the money, and we’re gonna deliver it. Make sure it’s ready.” And he talks of another church in Macedonia who, in spite of their poverty, begged for the opportunity to give to the needy people in Jerusalem because they wanted to pay back what they had received from Jerusalem. You see, we recognize the incredible things that we have received from the fellowship and we say, “Lord, You’ve given me so much. Let me give back.” So we use our resources.
5. Devote yourself to the gathering of the fellowship. Oh, do you know what a wonderful encouragement it is that you’re here tonight? I really mean that. I want you to imagine if it was only 5 people here. I want you to imagine if it was only them here, and what it would’ve meant if just you turned up. Or if you were here and what it would’ve meant for you if just one other person turned up. It’s funny. Just the simple reality of your presence here tonight spurs on the fellowship of God. Whether that’s here on a Sunday morning/afternoon or whether it’s Wednesday night, just the presence of the gathering of the fellowship is something that will spur us on all the way to eternity. You don’t even have to do anything. You just turn up and partake in the service. You just turn up and eat Carol’s cooking on Wednesday, and the whole fellowship is built up because of it. So give yourself to the gathering of God’s people Sunday by Sunday. I can remember as a kid, my parents always took me to 2 services. It’s just what I grew up doing. And unless we were dying in a corner somewhere, we never got to stay home. And I didn’t always want to go to church and I’d try and find good excuses to get out of it… but my parents always said, “No, church always comes first.” I begged my parents to let me play cricket at rep cricket on the Lord’s Day. Said, “No, ’cause the gathering of God’s people. That’s what the Lord expects of us.” And so we set everything aside, doesn’t matter what it is, that we might be here with one another in the presence of God, delighting in him together.

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Closing Motivation: The World Will Know

Brothers and sisters, I hope, I really hope that you see the importance of this.

Let me just close by providing you the motivation for this, very quickly.

Jesus says, “The whole world will know you’re my disciples by your love for one another.”

He prays to his father and he says, “Father, I want them to be one so that the world may know that you sent me.”

The oneness of the fellowship of God’s people is the testimony to the darkness that there is a God in heaven.

Isn’t that a stunning thought? I mean, you might be sitting here tonight thinking to yourself, “Just look at us.” We’re a tiny little gathering in a big hall, after being in a building with 200 odd people on a Sunday morning and a hundred odd people on a Sunday evening, and you’re tempted to think to yourself, “Was it all really worth it? Why am I even here?”

Remember that right now the testimony of Christ is being declared, whether people see it or not. Here in this place, the Kingdom of God is being advanced, and that’s something worth celebrating and rejoicing, right? That’s something worth giving our lives for because the people out there will be saved because of the visible manifestation of God in this place, and so we give ourselves to it all the more.

So let us give our all for the fellowship so that everyone might know and that God’s glory might be displayed here in our midst.