Church And Fellowship | Acts 2:42-47

INTRODUCTION

Good Morning I really appreciate the fact that you have taken the time to come to this assembly today. If you were asked the question, “Why did you come to church today?,” some of you will say, “I have come here to worship the Lord with songs or I have come to listen to the word of God.” Praise God for those answers. They are the right answers. But if you ask yourself, “How much fellowship have you built with others?,” an honest answer to that question maybe be “very little.” For a lot of people going to church is essential but building fellowship is not.

Acts 2:42-47 ⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

HF: We are looking at church from Acts 2. We studied “why church” in our first sermon. Last week we looked at “Church and Discipleship” from the first chapters of Acts. We are looking at the routines, values and priorities of this church community.

Last week we looked at these 4 habits this community of people adopted.

Four Habits Of The Early Church

1. Apostle’s Teaching.
2. Fellowship.
3. Breaking of Bread.
4. Prayer.

Today we are going to look at the importance of Church fellowship for us as believers.

ILLUSTRATION

A survey was taken of 525 churches and 180000 churchgoers in the US. The survey was to see how well churches were disciplining people and teaching people God’s word. What came out of the survey showed that everyone who is attending church fits into 4 groups of people. They are in one of 4 stages in their walk with God.

Far From God: People before this group.

EG – Exploring God. – Attending church but not having come to know the Lord as their saviour. They are Beginners in friendship.

BG – Beginning in God – Accepted Christ and are beginning in God. They are in a relationship with God.

CG – Close to God – Growing in their relationship. They are in discipleship.

GC – God-centred – They are in Lordship.

What moves people from EG to GC is Apostle’s Doctrine and Fellowship.

It is a sad reality that a lot of people are leaving church worldwide and churches are coming up with interesting things to make people come to church.

Vision Statement Of Our Church:

City Harvest Assemblies of God Church exists for Jesus as a movement of the Holy Spirit for revival in Bengaluru city & the world. Discipleship occurs when we are intentional in living out the teachings of Jesus within the community. We submit to the command of Scripture to love one another and this cannot happen if our lives do not intersect in good community fellowship. Our vision is fulfilled with the four-faceted approach. Preach. Prepare. Plant. Practice.

Fellowship is very vital for a Believer.

You Cannot Thrive As A Christian Without Fellowship.

Or Cannot Survive As A Believer Without Fellowship.

You Should Never Convince God’s People To Come To Church.

What Church Fellowship Is Not at?

Church Fellowship Is Not Just Friendship.

Fellowship is different from friendship. People of the world have friendships. So if you hang around a lot of time with some of your friends it is no different than people hanging around friends in the world. We need to distinguish between friendship and fellowship, Friendship is an earthly thing. You neither need the Holy Spirit for that nor the need to be spiritually minded to have a friendship. You can be an atheist and have good friends. Fellowship is not just friendship.

Church Fellowship Is Not Gossip

I also want to warn you that in our times of meeting, when we have fellowship with someone or a family for a long time as a Christian, they can move over into gossip, speaking about people, usually not good things. That is called gossip. You don’t build fellowship by speaking over someone else.

Ask yourself this question? Is your fellowship only cantered about speaking evil about others? Do you find delight in speaking evil about other people? Do you delight in hearing evil about other people? It is a habit to get rid of.

When someone speaks bad about a person, try and speak some good things about that person. It will put a break on the person who is talking bad about that person. We are here to build up one another.

Church Fellowship Is Not Control.

Jesus Prayed That We May Have Fellowship

If we look at the Lord’s prayer in John 17

John 17:20-21 ²⁰“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

One of the main purposes we come to church is for fellowship. You cannot get fellowship listening to a sermon. You cannot have fellowship reading a book. Fellowship can only happen when we come together.

What Is Fellowship?

The word Luke uses here is Koinonia. Koinonia is about much more than just hanging out.

Luke 2:44-45 ⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

One simple way of translating this is that this is a commitment to sharing, but it is sharing all kinds of things. It’s about sharing my resource, sharing my stuff, sharing my money, and sharing my time. Luke defines fellowship means is a commitment to share my life and share my stuff with the community.

There are many places in the book of Acts where Luke focuses on such fellowship. One is in Acts 2, there is another one in chapter 4.

Acts 4:32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.

One Mind, One Spirit

How many Christians are we talking about here? At least 3000 plus Jews who came to Jerusalem for Passover and Pentecost have received Jesus. Most of them decide to stay back in Jerusalem and now the church comes and shares their belongings with the foreigners.

Three thousand of them were in heart and mind. Everything was subject to this deep unifying value as a community. We are connected by Jesus, there is a connection between us.

Acts 4:33-35 ³³With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all ³⁴ that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales ³⁵and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

The gospel remakes what I view as mine, and so these people are in a habit of taking what they have and giving it for the well-being of others.

Luke in verse 33, has 2 words to describe what was going on or what was at work in these people in their fellowship. What is that word?

Acts 4:33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all.

Two words to be noted here: Power & Grace.

A Church That Is Strong In Fellowship Is A Powerful Witness For The Lord.

When I Prioritize Fellowship, I Am Filled With The Power Of God.

Second word: “Grace”. Great grace was on all of them.

When We Fellowship God’s Grace Is Powerfully At Work In Us.

The Greek word for Grace is the word Charis. The core idea of Charis is this connection with the idea of Gift.

What Is God’s Response To A World Of Human Beings Who Have Messed Up? Grace.

God does not give us what we do deserve as a punishment for our sins, God gives us Jesus and through Jesus’ forgiveness of sins. something that we do not deserve. That is the base meaning of Grace in the New Testament.

Luke is using Grace not simply to describe this act that God has done on our behalf, but he is describing what happens when you accept that gift, grace starts to work on you.

BACKGROUND

About 15 to 20 years go by and the church in Jerusalem ends up expanding and spreading to different parts. The focus now moves north, to a city called Antioch. From Antioch, the community of Jesus’ disciples start spreading just all over the big cities of the Roman world. The key Person in the book of Acts in starting many of these new communities is Paul.

During this time, in Acts 15, there is a huge food shortage and famine in Jerusalem. The Jewish Christians in Jerusalem suffer because of the famine. The church in Antioch provided help for the brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. They send their gift to the elders in Jerusalem through Paul and Barnabas.

They had fellowship. Their commitment to unity and sharing with these other Christians in Jerusalem whom they have never met. They sense a deep unity in connection with these Christians and that results in active sharing.

What happened to these Christians? Grace happened to them.

In 2 Corinthians Paul is writing to the Corinthians and he is telling a story about the Grace and fellowship of the Macedonia church.

2 Corinthians 8:1-4 ¹And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. ²In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. ³For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, ⁴ they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people.

These Christians in Macedonia are undergoing persecution and extreme poverty. But what describes their attitude and their mindset, what does he say? Joy. Overflowing joy and extreme poverty.

They are pleading with Paul to give support to the ministry. What an amazing story!

What happened to these Christians? Grace happened to them.

Paul had to remind the Corinthian church to practice grace.

2 Corinthians 8:7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

You are growing in faith, discipleship, speech etc. Don’t forget that part of being a disciple of Jesus means excelling and growing in Grace. It is very clear what he is talking about, he is talking about giving, and generosity. Look at how Paul sums all this up.

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace (charis) of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

God’s Grace is that decision that God made to become what we are so that we may become what he is. That is our foundation story as a community. Paul says if that is who we are if that is the power that works within us then seek to grow in generosity in your life. To share my life, to share my time, my resources in a way that benefits other people.

Apostle John Emphasised On Church Fellowship

John is an apostle who was last to die among Jesus’ disciples, 99 AD. He died sometime towards the end of the 1^st Century. In John’s writings towards the end of the 1^st Century, he too emphasised fellowship. 1 John was written sometime between 95-99 AD.

1 John 1:1-3 ¹That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ²The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. (The gospel brings between us) And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

Our horizontal fellowship with one another is dependent on our vertical fellowship with the Father. Look at the cross of our Lord, just a visual example for us to understand fellowship: The longer plank is the vertical plank. The horizontal plank is the smaller one. Our fellowship with others has to come out of our fellowship with God.

For some their vertical plank is longer than their horizontal plank.

My Primary Fellowship Is With God.

How To Have Fellowship With God?

1 John 1:5-10 ⁵This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

⁸If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

I Understand Jesus Is The Light Of The World.

And Receive Jesus In My Life.

I Need To Walk In The Light Personally.

If I am not walking in the light during the week, what happens when we come together is not fellowship but friendship.

Are there any deeds of darkness in your life? Ask God for cleansing.

The Purpose Of Fellowship Is To Get Connected To God And Get Integrated To One Another As A Family.

Benefits Of Church Fellowship:

1. Gives Me Joy

1 John 1:3-4 ³We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴We write this to make our joy complete.

2 Corinthians 8:1-2 ¹And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. ² In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. We find joy in the company of others who are single-minded.

2. Helps Me Overcome Sin

Hebrews 3:13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

1 John 1:6-10 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

⁸If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

3. Helps Me Obey God’s Word

1 John 2:3-6 ³We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. ⁴Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. ⁵But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

4. Helps Me To Love One Another

1 John 2:9-11 ⁹Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. ¹⁰Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. ¹¹But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

5. Church Fellowship Is A Means Of Strength And Perseverance.

We will come across in our life where we go through tough patches. It is the fellowship that helps me persevere through tough times.

We can ask the fellowship for prayer:

Paul asked for prayer:

Ephesians 6:19 ¹⁹Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Colossians 4:3-4 ³And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.

Paul in Lystra:

Acts 14:19-20 ¹⁹Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. ²⁰But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. 

CONCLUSION

Fellowship is an important part of our faith. It is sharing our life and resources with the people of God. Fellowship is more than Sunday attendance but participating in the life of the church and its people. We must be continually and steadfastly devoted to fellowship.

ILLUSTRATION

When you barbeque in your backyard and you heat up the coal. If you remove charcoal from the burning set of coals and isolate it, in a few minutes that will burn out or grow cold. The charcoal needs the heat, needs the energy of the other coals to stay ablaze. The more those coals are together the heat energy output becomes greater and stronger.

“I want the Christ for my Saviour. I want the whole Bible for my Book. The whole church for my fellowship, and the whole world for my mission field.” – John Wesley

Just ask yourself:

If you have been a part of this church, if this church is your home church; what does this mean for you?

Are you connected to City Harvest?

Do you invest your life, time and energy in the work of God here?

Being A Part Of A Church Means A Commitment To Be A Part Of A Church.

We are glad to be a place where you can grow. There is a healthy atmosphere for growth for all age groups and people groups here. I want to exhort you to get connected, and invest your life and time in the ministry of the Lord here. There are so many already doing that but I encourage others to do that. Come meet us, we are there for you.

Seek to grow in the Grace of Generosity. What will growing in the Grace of generosity look like for each and every one of us?

What does this mean for you? Let’s Pray.

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