On Your Mark, Get Set...Grow! Part 2-Part A

There's probably no more overused and undervalued word in the Christian vocabulary than the word fellowship.

It's as if we have believed that we can tack that word onto any activity and suddenly it's a sanctified activity and it constitutes real New Testament fellowship. And welcome to Connect with Skip Weekend Edition and today we continue the series Church Who Needs It with another question. Do you remember Peter Pan?

He never wanted to grow up. Well, that concept has been pretty appealing to children and unfortunately to many Christians, but it really isn't a good thing for them or the church. And on today's broadcast, Pastor Skip explains why it's important for Christians to grow up once they receive Christ.

But first, we have a great new resource for you this month at connectwithskip.com. Here's what Norm Geisler said about the book Tactics. There is no better book to equip Christians to think clearly. Here's Skip Heitzig on the need to engage in active spiritual warfare. You'll never fight God's battles from a sofa.

You'll never contend for what really matters by just cruising in your La-Z-Boy all day. You're going to have to decide to get up as part of the house and join the fight. Become a contender for biblical truth with Fight for the House, a six-message series through the book of Jude with Skip Heitzig. This teaching series on CD equips you to get in the ring to defend the gospel and guard against false teachings. And it's our thanks when you give to connect more people to the truth of God's word. And when you give $35 or more today, we'll also send you the book Tactics by Gregory Kochel to help you speak the truth about Christianity with confidence and grace.

Call 800-922-1888 to give, or visit connectwithskip.com. As you open your Bibles to Acts 2, Skip Heitzig starts today's study as we examine why fellowship at church is so important. Here's Pastor Skip. A church lives or dies by its people. If a church lives, it's because the people who are a part of it are themselves alive and vital and active.

And if a church dies, it's not because the carpet gets old or the building wears out, but because the people wither and die themselves. There was a young minister who went to a church in Oklahoma to take it over. It was a small and diminishing congregation, but he thought by the grace of God that he could turn it around, to no avail.

It didn't work. So his last ditch effort is he went to the local newspaper and took out an article that said the church has officially died and tomorrow, Sunday afternoon, we'll have a funeral service to finally bury it and invited the community out. Well, come Sunday afternoon, the church was packed for the first time in years.

People were just interested what kind of stunt this was. I mean, people were standing up looking in outside, looking through the windows to the inside. Pastors stood up, gave a eulogy about how great this church had been, but now it's dead. A coffin was brought in, flowers were arranged, and then the coffin was open and the pastor said, now would you stand up and single file walk by and pay your respects to the departed and perhaps we'll all understand why the church has died and there as they walked by the casket was a mirror positioned in such a way so that as people walked by they saw their own reflection and everybody walked past it very embarrassed. A group is only as strong as the individuals that comprise that group and a church is only as strong as the individual members. So in a church of 14,000 people like ours, how strong are the individuals within it? This is part two of a study that we're calling On Your Mark, Get Set, Grow. The text is Acts 2 42, the four ingredients that were the mission statement of the early church and we're moving slow in this verse.

We want to probe very deeply to make application. The first characteristic we saw last week of the early church is they devoted themselves consistently or continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. The second is fellowship and the second characteristic balances the first characteristic. It shows us that the early church wasn't just a school, it was a family. They weren't just about preaching, they were about partnering together, fellowship with each other. I'll put it to you this way, I think we see here God's New Testament solution to an Old Testament principle. One of the earliest principles God ever stated in Genesis chapter 2, God said, it is not good that man should be what?

Alone. And that's true of humanity in general and it's true of the church in particular. Verse 42 is their devotion to fellowship. Verse 43 through 47 is the description of that fellowship.

We read it last week, we will read it again today. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. And then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. Praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Now my first encounter with real fellowship was in a Christian commune and then a mortuary.

I need to explain that statement. In the early days of Calvary out in southern California we had communes, house ministries, and people were brought in off the streets. Drug addicts, hippies, wanderers brought together one to Christ and discipled in these houses. And then on weekends depending on where these houses were they would gather together for corporate worship.

Sort of like this structure house to house and then the temple. Well where we were at we decided to get all of the houses together and meet on Sunday in a rented mortuary because after all they weren't using the chapel on Sunday. And so we rented it and we got together and we had a worship band and Bible teaching and we got to meet people and grow and it was a wonderful time in the mortuary. Of course we had a lot of wisecracks about how this place really came alive on Sunday and this is a church people are dying to come to and all of that palaver. But I learned to connect with people. Today we're going to look at fellowship, the fellowship of the first church in Jerusalem.

What it means, why it was needed, how it's done, and when it happens. Let's first consider what it means and I draw your attention to verse 42, the word fellowship. Now that is a well-known word.

Every Christian knows the word fellowship. In fact it's so well known I bet a lot of you know it in its original language. It's the word what? Some of you got it, koinonia, koinonia. A very famous word, koinonia. But what you may not know is it's put in more of the formal construction. In Greek it's te koinonia, the fellowship.

Let me tell you what it's not and then what it is. There's probably no more overused and undervalued word in the Christian vocabulary than the word fellowship. It's as if we have believed that we can tack that word onto any activity and suddenly it's a sanctified activity and it constitutes real New Testament fellowship.

So you have the vintage car fellowship, the weightlifter's fellowship, the left-handed badminton player's fellowship. Just tack it onto anything and you have fellowship. Well it means a whole lot more than just hanging out in Jesus' name or eating a meal in Jesus' name or coffee and gossip which a lot of fellowship can become.

It means more than that. The word koinonia means communion or distribution or I like this word best, partnership. Partnership. It essentially means sharing the life of Jesus Christ that we have in common with each other. Sharing the life of Jesus Christ with each other. It is not just a social gathering, it's a spiritual gathering. Now we get social when we're together but we're being social when we're together but we're being social over spiritual matters, spiritual issues. That's fellowship. Howard Schneider wrote these words.

I brought the book out early this morning and reviewed it. The church today is suffering a fellowship crisis. One seldom finds in the institutionalized church today the winsome intimacy among people where masks are dropped, honesty prevails, and there is that sense of communication and community beyond the human where there is literally the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Our churches are filled with people who outwardly look contented and at peace but inwardly are crying out for someone to love them just as they are. Fellowship in the New Testament is gathering together for a goal and the goal is to encourage, to build up, to stimulate, to love in good works spiritual growth. I'll tell you where it's best seen in the Bible. Fellowship is best seen in a phrase that is repeated 60 times. It's the phrase one another, one another. Whenever you find that phrase it's good to look at it and read what is going on one with another because it tells us that when we get together these are the things we're to be doing and that's true Christian fellowship. Now in your bulletin this morning I've given you a smattering of those. Take that out if you don't mind and look at it with me.

I didn't put 60 in there. I think I put 13 of them just to give you a little bit of a smattering of Christian fellowship. So let's just look at these verses. Romans 12 verse 10. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor giving preference to one another. In other words, think of ways to show genuine affection to people.

Go out of your way to encourage them. Romans 12 16. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. That is, don't get stuck up and only hang out with the select few.

You're clique, the elite, but all Christians. Romans 13 verse 8. O to no one anything except to love one another for he who loves one another has fulfilled the law.

You can never love too much because you can never pay off the debt of God's love to you. Romans 14 verse 19. Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which we may edify one another.

So use your energy to build the people up not tear them down. Romans 15 verse 5. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus. That is, we can all agree on life's most important activity and that is glorifying God. Get along with each other because Jesus gets along with all of us.

That's the idea. Romans 15 verse 7. Therefore receive one another just as Christ also received us to the glory of God.

Let's put it this way. Tear down walls that divide you. Drain your moats that divide you.

Build bridges to connect. Romans 15 verse 14. Now I myself am confident concerning you my brethren that you also are full of goodness filled with all knowledge able also to admonish one another. A very important text.

The word admonish is the Greek word nutatheo which means to reprove, teach, or warn. What it's saying is that we as the body of Christ have all that we need to counsel each other. You don't have to go to the outside world. You can get it all done within the confines of Christian fellowship. Romans 16 verse 16. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you. So I expect there'll be a whole lot of holy kissing afterwards.

Let's put it in a more modern context. Don't be afraid of a hug. A warm display of Christian affection and just for the record let me say when you shake somebody's hand, shake it. Don't put out the cold fish.

Not good. Grab the hand. Hearty handshake. Bear hug. I know what I'm getting after church.

No doubt. Ephesians 4 2. With all loneliness and gentleness, with long suffering bearing with one another in love, make allowances for each other's faults. Put it this way.

Be an eraser, not an indelible marker. Ephesians 4 25. Therefore putting away lying, let each of you speak truth with his neighbor for we are all members of one another. Be honest. Be open. Be real. Don't flatter. Don't lie.

We're on the same team. Ephesians 4 32. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. Or be nice. Be polite.

Add a spoonful of honey to your communication. Ephesians 5 19. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. It's what we did a few minutes ago, practicing the joyful activity of singing truth-filled songs. And if you go, well I don't have a good voice.

I don't like to sing. Notice it also says in the verse, speaking to one another. Just speak those words next time. Ephesians 5 21. Submitting to one another in the fear of God. That is, empty yourself of pride and the need to control other people. Mutual submission.

Now that's just a smattering. There are others like James 5. Confess your sins to one another. Colossians 3. Forgive one another. Galatians 6. Bear one another's burdens. Now that is real Christian fellowship. And I long for that.

Don't you all? That's real stuff. That's real community.

But I want to warn you. True authentic Christian fellowship is messy. It's messy.

You know why? Because we're all broken people. When you get real with another person, it's messy. And it's dangerous because it means you have to open yourself up to another person and be real. And a lot of people that I have met do not want to do that.

Here's why. They've been hurt before. They've been burned before in relationships. And so when they get around people, walls go up.

Defenses go up. Everything's parsed and very, very carefully displayed because of that pain that they carry. And so like a medieval castle, the walls are high. And they're very, very alone.

It's messy. Have you ever considered the group that Jesus came to redeem? Remember His words in Luke chapter 4?

I'll read them to you. Jesus said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Notice the group.

Poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind, oppressed. That's a messy bunch of folks. And real Christian fellowship will be messy. It's not safe. It's not benign. It's not easy.

It can be tough, but it's good. And I'll bring you now to the second point, why it's needed. Why is it needed?

Let me tell you why it was needed 2,000 years ago here, and then I'll tell you why it is needed. If you go back to verse 12 of chapter 2, you'll notice with me something. They, that is the unbelieving Jerusalemites, were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, whatever could this mean?

Others mocking said they are full of new wine. And people were mocking Christians for their outward display of love and worship. And here it was, the speaking in tongues in Jerusalem. Chapter 4 begins a notable period of persecution against the church, so that eventually Christians were losing their jobs because they were Christians and being alienated from the society around them because they were Christians. So now the church was their new family.

The church was their new family. So let's apply that to us. In a world that is becoming increasingly hostile, isolating and alienating toward Christians, and I don't know if you've seen the news lately, but I see it in a palpable form where the demarcation between Christian and non-Christian is very marked, and the hostility is going up. In such a world, Christian fellowship is the antidote.

It's the antidote. And this is the reason I believe the church will never be outdated. Ever, ever, ever, it will always be needful as long as it stays biblical. Now if it doesn't stay biblical and it becomes just another social club like thousands of other institutions out there, it will become irrelevant.

But if it's true to the apostles' doctrine and true fellowship, it will never be outdated. Because in our culture, where people move a lot, we're very mobile, in our society that is very technological, it is producing a whole lot of very lonely, isolated individuals. And God's solution is to place them in families. Psalm 68, God sets the solitary in families. And in the Christian family, there's growth and acceptance and forgiveness and love and accountability. And worldly institutions will not provide that.

And computers will not provide that. Now something that is going to sound very obvious, but it needs to be stated. Fellowship is not the kind of activity you can do alone. You're saying, Skip, you have a keen eye for the obvious.

But it needs to be stated. You can't say, I'm going to go alone and have fellowship. No, you're not. Yeah, with God, but not with anybody else but yourself. And unless you're schizophrenic, you're not going to have other people with you. And it can't be done by a podcast or watching television or a computer, as great as those things are.

You can't download fellowship 6.0 or acceptance 3.2. It requires human beings, proximity, flesh and blood, life and life. There's a Jewish proverb, an ancient one that says, a friendless man is like a left hand bereft of the right hand. And I would say that an isolated Christian is like a left hand bereft of the right hand. You know the scripture, Proverbs 18, a man who isolates himself seeks his own desire.

He rages against all wise judgment. You know, fellowship with other believers is a key element of our growth as a Christian for several reasons. And we'll explore more of those reasons next time in our series, Church Who Needs It. Now, if you'd like to order a copy or two of today's teaching, just call 1-800-922-1888 or visit connectwithgift.com.

Each copy is available for just $4 plus shipping. We'll have more to talk about when it comes to our growth and maturity as Christians. So be sure to join us next time here in Connect with Skip weekend edition. A presentation of Connection Communications. .... Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.