2014 Shepherds Conference: Fellowship 101 (Selected Scriptures) | John MacArthur

Well, I know we're all eager to uh open up the word of God and to hear what the Lord has for us uh from uh those who will be speaking in these general sessions. And also, you probably had the opportunity to run down some of the seminars and make some choices.

And we're just delighted to have everyone who is going to be contributing there and uh spread you out in whatever ways uh you would desire so that you can be properly affected by uh the truth uh no matter who it comes through in the area where you feel specific need.

These general sessions focus I think regularly through our shepherd's conference history on life in the church. making sure we're sound in our doctrine and sound in our understanding of what the Lord expects of us as leaders in the church. And this morning, we'll be no different. Always a bit of a challenge for me to accept the responsibility to open up everything and and set our thinking and try to start a conversation that I I hope will flourish through the the days that we are together and even beyond.

And um the Lord has directed me this morning to talk to you about the issue of fellowship in the church, fellowship. And I know that's pretty basic um to all of us. Um perhaps I'm going to be telling many of you what you already know. Perhaps we will be saying things to some of you that you don't know.

But in any case, the the opportunity this morning to raise your understanding and your sense of responsibility for fellowship as a reality in the life of the church is what is on my heart and has been in my prayers. I want you to open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and just a few scriptures to read and set in your mind and then I I want to talk to you a little bit about fellowship.

Uh this this may not be in a classic sense a sermon but maybe more a talk from my heart to you about the urgency of understanding and implementing all of the elements of fellowship in the life of the church. Uh, I hope that comes across to you. This is much on my heart, much on my mind and a profound concern for me and I want to pass that concern on to you. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, very familiar words, starting in verse 12.

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one spirit.

For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, "Because I'm not a hand, I'm not a part of the body." It is not for this reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, "Because I'm not an eye, I'm not a part of the body.

It is not for this reason any less a part of the body." If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them in the body, just as he desired.

If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Or again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

And those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor. And our less presentable members become much more presentable. Whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ's body and individually members of it. The very essence of the life of the church is expressed in that metaphor very graphically and unmistakably.

The life of the church is communal. It is basically intensely shared personal relationships with a spiritual thrust. That's what is being expressed by the Apostle Paul in that extended metaphor. We find that repeated throughout the epistles of Paul in particular. In Galatians chapter 3, he emphasizes that we are all one in Christ Jesus.

In Ephesians chapter 4, he says that we are all growing together to the fullness of the stature of Christ and that the Lord is fitting every part of the body together in one. At the end of the that section, chapter 4 15 and 16. Philippians chapter 2, Paul talks about not looking on your own things but the things of others, humbling yourself, having the attitude of Christ which is selfless and self-giving.

This is life in the church. And I I could read many other passages, but you're familiar with them. I just want to reestablish in our minds this morning the urgency of this matter of fellowship in the church. Some of us over the last few years had the opportunity to read the biography of Dietrich Bonhaofer by Eric Mataxis and were perhaps reintroduced to that remarkable life.

Bonhaofer was um very influential in my life early on when I began pastoral ministry and uh it was just really one book that he wrote. It was called life together. Uh I couldn't find anything on fellowship. I couldn't find a book on fellowship when I was trying to search out what the responsibility of the pastor was to develop fellowship in the church.

I came across that book and while it's not particularly theological, it's more uh his own insights almost devotionally looking at the issue of fellowship, I I found it to be insightful and extremely helpful, particularly in light of where he finally ended up. In the great dawn of April 1945, in a Nazi concentration camp at Flossenberg, Dietrich Bonhaofer was executed.

He was executed by the order of Hinrich Himmler who as you know was Hitler's executioner. He had been arrested about two years before and it just transferred from camp to camp to camp. Teagle Berlin Buenvald Shonberg Flossenberg and in transferring him like that he lost all contact with the outside world.

He became more and more and more isolated, severed from the people that he knew and love and all possible contact. In fact, he was separated from any fellowship. He had written life together some years before that concentration camp experience. But in that book, he says this, "The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.

A physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. How inexhaustable are the riches that open up for those who by God's will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians." He wrote, "Let him who has such a privilege thank God on his knees and declare it is grace, nothing but grace that we are allowed to live in fellowship in community with Christian brothers."

Hence, grace community church. New Testament metaphors emphasize our fellowship. We as Christ's church are one wife with one husband. We are one set of branches connected to one vine. We are one flock with one shepherd, one kingdom with one king, one family with one father, one building with one foundation.

But even more intimately expressed is this reality in the metaphor we read in first Corinthians. We are a body. We are one body with one head and one life. It is our unique identity. Those other metaphors find parallels in the Old Testament in God's relationship to Israel. But the metaphor of the body appears only in the New Testament and thus is the unique way to understand the church.

Our fellowship is profound. Our fellowship is spiritual. Our fellowship is real. It is a shared common life. It is also essential. It is what our Lord prayed would be the reality in that famous prayer in John 17 when repeatedly he said I pray that they may be one that they may be one that they may be one that was his prayer he was not praying for some kind of uh social oneness he was praying for a spiritual reality and that prayer was answered when the church was born Jesus prayed afraid that the father would make us one as he and the father are one.

What an amazing way to make a parallel that we are one in the way that he and the father are one. And you could add the Holy Spirit based on Philippians 2, the fellowship of the spirit. John writes about the fellowship of the son and the father. Trinitarian fellowship is the model for fellowship in the church.

Shared life, shared love, shared purpose, shared truth, shared power. This is fellowship. When you come to the New Testament, the familiar verb coonto is used eight times. Eight times. Seven of those in the NAS are translated share and one is translated participates. The noun coonia or coonas appears about 30 times and has lots of different translations.

Sometimes sharing, uh, contribution, partnership, participation, whatever. Sometimes just fellowship. But those terms are are very very clear. The concept is partaking, contributing, sharing, linking as partners in common life and common cause. a spiritual relationship that is essentially a copy of the relationship within the Trinity. This is at the heart of life in the church.

This is what the church is. But in thinking about that, I I've been deeply disturbed over the last number of years and more so maybe in the last number of months because I don't think that's the direction the church is going. I don't think the church is going in the direction of a deeper, more profound expression of spiritual fellowship.

I think it's rapidly moving in the opposite direction. Back in the 1980s, um, a Jewish humanist by the name of Neil Postman wrote a very, very wise little book called Amusing Ourselves to Death. And here is a Jewish humanist uh who is critiquing evangelical Christianity and saying that they've lost their ability to think seriously and they are now succumbing uh to entertainment.

Entertainment replacing serious thinking. What he was talking about was the mind crippling power of television where instead of people engaging on an intellectual level, meaningful intellectual level, they sit like zombies and stare at a box and are seduced and transfixed by that. But you could say at least watching TV is a group experience.

It's a group experience. And maybe that has some value. And screens have been getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So the group can be bigger and bigger and bigger. So I don't think Neil Postman ever imagined that screens would get bigger and bigger. But I'm sure he never imagined that at the same time television screens are getting bigger and bigger and bigger, screens are also getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller.

What threatens fellowship? Hyper privacy. Devastating. Devastating. Paradoxically, screens are getting bigger for the group event. They're getting smaller to make your world more private. And by the way, in the next couple of months, you're going to have the opportunity to see the release by Google of Google Glasses.

Just put them on and watch the internet. As private as it gets. Screens are so private now that you can bring in the world of your own choosing into your hand through smartphones. very private. Every person has become like a god, a creator of his own private world, a secret world of preferences, downloading what he wants or she wants, eliminating what he doesn't want.

A world of preferences and a world of temptations. And temptation comes through that mechanism. And that means with a privacy that is the most devastating force that has ever been unleashed in human history. And it is ubiquitous, unparalleled. The iPhone is the most selfish necessity ever devised. Believe it.

Once we used a telephone to talk to someone, technology has put in the hand and soon on the nose the most constant, the most incessant, the most accessible, the most visual private world of self-centered indulgence and temptation that humanity's ever known. You choose your music. You choose your teachers.

You choose your entertainment. You choose your Facebook friends. And like God, you become the creator of your world. And you consign the world that you reject to the outer darkness. of cyerspace that doesn't invade your private creation. Your little private creation is whatever you want and it omits whatever you reject.

And the force of temptations and the facility with which you can indulge yourself in them and no one knows is devastating to fellowship. Carl Truman was writing about this and he said the language of friendship is hijacked and cheapened by the internet social networks, Facebook friends. I believe this is part also of the juvenileization of the church because this is childish.

Selfishness is the most clear evidence of childishness. And the younger the child is, the more selfish it is. This is the juvenileization of the church or part of it. Carl Truman says the language of Facebook both reflects and encourages childishness. Childishness, he says, is a textually transmitted disease.

By the way, you might want to know this. The latest survey, the average high school student is on the internet 9 hours a day. Average high school student. You think about that as a pastor trying to create a fellowship with the next generation. Carl Truman says, "Such are human amiebas subsisting in a bizarre nonworld that involves no risk to themselves, no giving of themselves to others, no true vulnerability, no commitment, no sacrifice, no real meaning or value."

He says they are self-created avatars and real fellowship doesn't exist in that world. Let me say it simply. Christianity is not a private experience. Privacy devastates Christianity. The rapid trend is heading to the norm of people creating their own virtual world and virtual self and then projecting their own virtual self.

The illusion they can upload the new creation into the Eden of the internet after they've created themselves. I tweet, therefore I am. And this is who I am. The perfect indomitable me. Self-actualized like some technologically created science of mind projection. One writer in Reformation 21 magazine said, "The culture is becoming more isolated, consumeristic, narcissistic, self-absorbed, individualistic, morally relative, and entitled."

That's tough on fellowship. The evangelical church for decades has been trying to give the culture what the culture wants. And what it wants, says this article, is privacy, convenience, low commitment, anonymity, unaccountability, and self-actualization. Just deadly to fellowship. That's why megaurches are stage shows in a dark building.

Nothing going on between the people sitting in the dark. We can't keep this out of the church, especially when we're so committed to trying to give the culture what it wants in the name of evangelism. Church life is falling victim to the seductive self-design. I read several articles this last week and this was kind of the bottom line.

I can't find a church I like. I can't find a church I like. By the way, attendance in most mega churches is on the decline. So what you're going to have and the trend is that people will belong to the first church of iTunes that they will be church planters and they will plant their own church with one member.

You have your music, your teachers, your messages, and your friends. I think now either the first or second largest church in America is an online church. There are churches that now have a Facebook wall. And I read another advertisement by a church. Join an Egroup. This is the trend.

Oh, at a real church you might have to face an enemy. At a real church, you might have to sit next to somebody disgusting. At a real church, you might hear a message from a preacher who doesn't say what you want to hear. And worst of all, you might have to sing an old hymn in 44 time led by a senior citizen.

Can you imagine? Unthinkable. inconceivable. That would be way too much for your self-created world. That's outside your selfactualization. For many, entitlement to their own view dominates. All information, all experience, all relationships are based upon their own defined entitlement. that rules out truth, accuracy, credibility, rationality, sacrifice, deferred gratification, and meaningful relationships.

I read just yesterday, Louisie Gileio with the Passion Church said, "Young millennials are leaving church but going toward Jesus." That's too bad. Church is unnecessary. If you do go, it's sporadic. You go to to hear something that fits your world or gets close, but you're probably going to not like something and so you're going to maybe drift away to your own self-planted church.

This was kind of uh illustrated recently in an article in Christianity Today by Kevin Miller. Some of you may have seen it. He was writing about uh Donald Miller, uh Rob Bell, and Brian McLaren, and uh he was saying that they've all left the church. They've all left the church 10 years ago. 10 years ago, they were the most in quote influential evangelicals in the world.

They were on those lists of the 25 most influential, the 50 most influential. They they were part of that emergent u church that obviously imploded because of personalized entitled religion. They had a bias against the accuracy and authority and clarity of the word of God. So they formed a kind of personalized religion that imploded when people began to realize that there was no reason to get together.

There's no reason to get together. So you have statements by Donald Miller on his blog, I don't worship God by singing. Or another one, why I don't go to church. Or uh another one about having communion along the side of the road with chocolate chip cookies and cocoa.

A fantastic binding experience with the people in the car. Create your own sacraments. Create your own religion. hyperindividualized faith. I believe uh Kevin Miller called it. Now, we all know that over the last 20 years, the church has succumbed to a weak ecclesiology and this just greases the slide downward.

Even in the middle of a revival of reformed theology, just by the overwhelming redefining of life that is coming at us because of these privatized individualized screens. Even in the midst of the revival of reformed theology, we could be losing a whole generation to fellowship. Then you feel pressure as a pastor when somebody says, "What are you doing in your church with technology?

What are you doing with social media in your church?" Not going to go away. And like anything, it has value. Can be a tool for good, but it is also a tool for disastrous evil. But for certain, we can't let the cyber world replace real fellowship. >> And that is going to be a battle, guys.

I just tell you, you're going to have to fight this. Everything about the church fights against privacy. Everything about the church fights against privacy, against isolation, against narcissism, everything. So with that brief introduction, uh I just want to back into uh fellowship 101. Okay, fellowship 101. Fellowship 101 ju just to give you some things to think about.

What is the basis of fellowship? Let's start with the basis. If we have time, we we'll talk about the nature of fellowship, the symbol of fellowship, the danger to fellowship, the duty of uh fellowship, and the result of fellowship. So, that's just kind of a few points. We'll go as far as we can.

Uh let let's start with the basis of fellowship. And let's let's look at first John. First John, we're going to kind of bounce around a little bit. 1 John chapter 1. And we can just start at verse one. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

He's talking about his firsthand experience with the incarnate God in Christ. And the life was manifested. and we've seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and was manifested to us. This is the gospel that he has committed to testify to and proclaim.

And then this in verse three, what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ. This is probably the most definitive verse on the basis of fellowship.

The basis of fellowship in a word is salvation. Salvation. The the proclamation of the gospel says John. The proclamation of the gospel was so that verse three so that to the purpose that you may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the father and the son.

And I again would throw in Philippians 2 and the spirit, the fellowship of the spirit mentioned there. This is a proclamation of the gospel with a goal in mind. And what is the goal? To create a partnership, to create shared life, shared purpose, shared power, shared ministry. The goal of the gospel was not just individual salvation for for people who then are privileged to do what they want but rather to create a fellowship.

This is what Jesus prayed for and this is the answer to his prayer. Uh when Jesus was praying that they may be one that they may be one he wasn't talking about some some kind of social unity. He was talking about a real unity that is fulfilled in the work of the spirit of God who comes and creates the body of Christ by his own indwelling.

He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit, one with the Lord and one with all who are the Lord's. So in that sense, I used to hear people say, "Well, so and so is out of fellowship." That's not possible. If you're out of fellowship, you're an unbeliever.

If you're a believer, you're in the fellowship because the basis of fellowship is salvation. That puts us all in union with each other. That's the only way we can look at that. If you're a believer, you're in the fellowship. If I'm a believer, I'm in the fellowship. And my fellowship is with you and with the Trinity.

Every saved person then is mandated and entitled to the full involvement in the fellowship and our responsibility extends to all and any of them. God has put our lives together for spiritual purposes because the basis of fellowship is salvation. John draws a contrast and and he does this a lot in his epistle.

I won't take time to to to look at it, but pick it up at verse 5 for a minute. This is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. That that cannot be more clear. Either you are in the light or you are in the darkness.

Either you are saved or you are lost. Either you're in the fellowship or you're out of the fellowship. And if you're in the light, you're saved and in the fellowship. Believers are always in the fellowship. Believers are always in the light. They are always confessing their sins and they are always being continually forgiven.

Always. >> You don't want to say to that somebody's out of fellowship. We used to hear that so often. This fellowship is forever. >> You may say like David did, restore to me the joy of thy salvation. As Barnhouse used to say, if you're on a ship and you fall on the deck, you can pick yourself up and you're not lost.

It's very different than falling overboard. Um, you're on the deck of the fellowship. You may stumble and fall. You may sin. In fact, you will sin. And if you say you don't sin, verse 8 and 10 says you're a liar and you make God a liar. But that's not fatal because of chapter 2 verse one.

If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. So we may fall on the deck, but that's not terminal. This fellowship is forever.

Forever. Bonhaofer wrote, I am a brother to another person through what Jesus Christ did for me and to me. The other person has become a brother to me through what Jesus Christ did for him. This fact that we are brothers only through Jesus Christ is of immeasurable significance.

Imeasurable significance. It is not what a man is. He writes in himself as a Christian his spirituality and piety. That's not the basis of our fellowship. What determines our fellowship is what that man is by reason of Christ. Our fellowship with one another consists solely in what Christ has done in both of us.

It remains so for time and eternity. He says Christian fellowship, he writes, is not an ideal which we must achieve. It is a reality created by God in Christ. That's the basis of fellowship. Consequently, that's the divine intention. Secondly, just a little about the nature of it. And this is pretty obvious, I think.

Um, you can look at Acts chapter 2, very familiar portion. And again, as I said, this fellowship 101, but just as a reminder in the context that we tried to establish earlier, I think this is where the great battle lies for us in the future being faithful pastors and shepherds.

You remember that Peter preached and verse 41 says 3,000 uh souls were added to the church and and received the word and were baptized. And then in verse 42, they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. And many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need.

Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Here we move to the reality of fellowship which is togetherness, sharing, sharing in a spiritual way and sharing as well in a temporal way. Sharing common commitment to the apostles teaching to fellowship itself to the breaking of bread and prayer. You notice they were continually devoting themselves to this collectively.

They were together, says verse 44, all professors first of all were possessors. They were genuinely converted people on the day of Pentecost. They were sharing in everything. Verse 44, and holding all things in common. They expressed their partnership and their spiritual union even in temporal ways. And I mean you know the history well many u people who were converted in that great event and subsequent to that lingered in Jerusalem because it was the only church in the world and they had come from the diaspora back for the events of uh of Passover and Pentecost and now they were there that this is the only church in the world they stay uh they have to be cared for their needs have to be met and that's why people began selling verse 45 their property and possessions. s and sharing them with all as anyone might have need.

The the spiritual shared life uh eventually cost them money. Cost them money. Imperfect tense verbs began selling continually sharing at different times. different people as there was a need moved by the Holy Spirit to give and to give to such an extent they actually sold their property liquidated their property to provide for each other.

This is the fellowship of serving that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 8:4 sharing fully in spiritual life. The impact of this of course comes in verse 47. They were having favor with all the people and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

You know, it's such a powerful testimony to the world when a church exists in genuine sacrificial loving fellowship. >> John 13:34 and35 Jesus says they'll know you by your love. That's how they'll know you by your love. Not not not the emotion of it, but the expression of it.

That's fellowship. Aristades wrote that famous um statement in ancient times, a pagan looking at Christians, and he said, "They abstain from all impurity in the hope of the recompense that is to come in another world. When there is among them a man that is poor and needy, and if they have not abundance of necessities, they fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with the necessary food, such as the law of the Christians, and such their conduct.

That's a powerful testimony to the world. But but that's that's being lost if nothing else in a barrage of prosperity gospel which feeds the selfishness and childishness of the so-called church. This is still to be the character of the church. This is still to be the life of the church and this will always be the testimony of the church.

This is going to be battle. This is going to be a battle. It's going to be a war. Privacy, as I said, is deadly. But a whole generation is being reared to isolate themselves. So what is the basis of fellowship? Salvation. If you're in Christ, you're in the fellowship, a shared spiritual life that produces a shared life in every aspect.

Thirdly, I want to just mention the symbol of fellowship. There is a symbol that the Lord gave us for fellowship. You can turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. And again, this is familiar because this is part of of our ministry. 1 Corinthians 10:16, Paul says, "Is not the cup of blessing?"

Speaking of the Lord's table, is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ or a fellowship in the blood of Christ. Is not the bread which we break a fellowship in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body.

For we all partake of the one bread. This what is the symbol of our fellowship? It is the Lord's table. It is the Lord's table. This is where we all end up on our knees at the foot of the cross, isn't it? This is the leveler. This is where there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond nor free.

Magnificent symbol of our common shared life. And I think we emphasize u the aspect of looking at the cross, but one of the things I've I've tried to do through all the years here is emphasize that communion. Yes, it looks back at the cross, but it looks presently at the body of Christ as the one group of sinners who together are humbled on their knees before the sacrifice of the son of God.

We have a common partnership in salvation that is the basis of our life. I don't think you can overemphasize the Lord's table. And I think I think it's it's being diminished. I took my uh grandson or he took me one Sunday and we were in another place and he said, "Let's go visit that church."

I said, "Sure." I was out of town and we went into this church and uh it was it was a very painful experience, very large church, well known. And at the end of this really gross mishandling of scripture and a lot of other stuff, uh the pastor said, "This is uh communion Sunday."

So, uh there there's some uh bread and and juice uh by the exits, so uh just grab some on your way out. Okay. My grandson and his friend, both students, looked at me and said, "We got to get out of here." No, we endured up to that point, but that kind of treatment of the Lord's table is abominable.

You cannot overemphasize the Lord's table. Not the ritual of it, but take however often you do it, and there's no prescription in in the scripture, but however often you do it, make much of it, much of it at as looking at the cross, much of it as confessing sin.

Because if you eat and drink unworthily, this is believers, you you eat and drink judgment to yourself. divine discipline. You need to protect your people from that discipline by calling them to deep and honest self-examination. Communion visualizes the fellowship. We're all one, equally unworthy, equally graced with eternal life at the foot of the cross.

All equally redeemed by him. All equally bearing eternal life from him. All sustained in him. The Lord's table humbles us. The Lord's table levels us. The Lord's table calls us to serious self-examination. The Lord's table also vividly celebrates our union with each other. Here the life of the church together enjoys the symbol of fellowship.

Make much of the Lord's table. Treat it seriously, not routinely. Call people to self-examination. This is at the very heart of our fellowship. This should be collectively for the life of your church corporate confession in the heart. Stimulate that. Stimulate that. Warn your people. Warn them. and then warn the non-believers who might be there not to partake but to see the demonstration of those who are showing forth his death till he comes.

Well, the the basis of the fellowship is common salvation. The nature of the fellowship is shared life spiritually and shared life temporally on all levels. The uh symbol of the fellowship is the Lord's table. Number four is the danger to the fellowship. We know what the danger to the fellowship is.

It's sin. It's not hard to discern that sin devastates the fellowship. It not only uh brings discipline on the believer but it devastates the fellowship, shatters the unity, restricts the ministry, halts the power, confuses the purpose, blight the testimony. That is why in 1 Corinthians 11, if you're still there, as I've been mentioning, verse 27 says, "If you eat or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, you'll be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord."

I mean, that is a frightening statement. So, you have to examine yourself. It's so serious that the Lord might actually make people sick in your congregation, some of them may end up dying. Verse 30. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 1 Corinthians 5 says, "A little levaven does what?"

Leavenvens everything. You you have to shut people out of the symbol who are unwilling to confess all their sin. The problem is they do not judge the body rightly. They don't understand how significant is the unity of the church. To violate this is to ask for judgment. Now, let's go back because we have to at this point to Matthew 18 for just a moment.

Only have a few moments left. But in Matthew 18, the first instruction in the New Testament that even mentions the church, first time the word church appears, here is the instruction. If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private. If he listens to you, you've won your brother.

If he doesn't listen to you, take one or two more with you, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. The first time the church is mentioned, the first time it's mentioned, it is in regard to individuals confronting other individuals about their sin because it devastates the fellowship. tell the church and with the view that the church then calls that sinner to repentance and if he refuses to listen even to the church treat him like a gentile and a tax collector an outcast we all know that you know I'm convinced that the future of the church does not depend on cultural relevance the future of the church does not depend on marketing.

The future of the church does not depend on technology. The future of the church does not depend on branding or targeting, communication methods. Future of the church depends on the church's holiness. Deal with sin. Deal with sin. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, you hear the really the cry of Paul's heart.

He's brokenhearted by the way they've treated him in Corenth. Verse 15, I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. What do you think he means by that? that he would give his life literally for the spiritual well-being of the Corinthians. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

And then down in verse 19, all this time you have been thinking that we're defending ourselves to you. Actually, it is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ and all for your upbuilding, beloved. For I am afraid that perhaps when I come, I may find you to be not what I wish, and may be found by you to be not what you wish.

That perhaps there will be strife and jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. I am afraid that when I come again, my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality, and sensuality which they have practiced.

What do you think burdened him? He wasn't looking for better means of communication. What burdened him was the purity of the church. This is the hard work, men, of pastoral leadership. This is hard work. Just this week, talking to a wife whose husband left her and two children, talking with one of our other pastors.

What do we do? He's been called back and called back. What do we do? We don't have a choice. Contact him. Let him know process has begun to tell the church. The future of your ministry is directly correspondent to your passion for the truth and holiness of your church.

Media cleverness gets crowds. doesn't produce holiness. But I'll tell you what holiness does. It brings Jesus Christ to church. >> It brings him to your church. Because where two or three are gathered together in a discipline situation, there am I where? In the midst. That's not talking about a prayer meeting.

That's talking about church discipline. The danger to fellowship is sin and in particular the private sin. Sin always wants privacy. Always wants privacy. And the more private it is, the more powerful it is. Well, I could say more about that. That's what you always say when you've just run out of material.

There's a chuckle of affirmation for sure. So the basis of uh fellowship is salvation. The nature of fellowship is shared life spiritual and temporal. The symbol of fellowship is the Lord's table. The danger to fellowship is sin. The duty of fellowship and you can stay in Matthew 18.

The duty of fellowship. Well, I don't have time to go into all of this, but um the duty of fellowship. Certainly, there's a negative aspect of it. Verse six, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me, that's not talking about children. That's not talking about babies.

That's talking about believers. Believers. Verse three. Unless you're converted and become like children, you'll not enter the kingdom of heaven. It's the childlikeness of a believer, dependent, without portfolio, without accomplishment. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me, to stumble, meaning into sin, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea.

That's pretty serious. The rule is there. You don't want to be the reason some believer stumbles into sin. You'd be better off dead. You'd be better off to die a horrible death with a millstone around your neck and be drowned. That that's a warning. Now, we expect the world to do that.

Verse seven, woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks. Of course, it's going to devise and develop every means of causing believers to stumble into sin. It's inevitable that stumbling blocks come from the world. But woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes. Doesn't mean the world is exonerated from responsibility because it's normal for them.

Not at all. But you don't want to do that. And then there's that axiomatic familiar statement in verse 8 and nine about if your hand or foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. Throw it away. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. Throw it from you.

Better to enter life without a hand or foot or without an eye than to be thrown into hell. In other words, the seriousness of causing someone to stumble. Verse 10, see that you do not despise one of these little ones, little ones who believe in me. That's that's the principle here from a negative standpoint.

Don't offend another believer. Don't lead another believer into sin. How do you do that? Could be by flaunting our liberty and causing them to stumble. It could be by looking down on them, despising them, belittling them. It could be withholding need what they need from them. It could be ridiculing their station in life or something about them.

It could be treating them with indifference. It could be failing to confront their sinfulness. Could be defrauding them, taking advantage of them. Lots of ways. You don't want to do that. The positive is back in verse 5. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. When you receive another believer, when you welcome another believer into your life, no matter who that believer is, you're receiving Christ.

So, positively, you want to receive other believers. negatively. You don't want to offend other believers. That's the pattern that is required of you. That's the duty of fellowship. And there are some reasons. First of all, in verse 10, um because of the relationship that believers have to angels, don't despise or look down on these little ones.

For I say to you, their angels in heaven continually see the face of my father who is in heaven. That's just an amazing statement. reminiscent of the custom in eastern courts where men highly respected chose servants u of the rulers who were to stand before the king and and look into the king's face.

You see that make references made to that in first and second kings. There there were attendants around the royal throne who picked up the king's concern and acted. We know angels do that. Hebrews 1:14, they're ministering saints, ministering to saints. They watch, they they guide, they provide, they protect, they they deliver, they dispatch answers to prayer.

All those things are in scripture. You better be careful how you treat another believer because the angels are watching. You have a relationship with angels at that level. You also have a relationship with Christ. Back to verse five. When you receive correctly, properly in a holy and godly fashion, one such child in my name, you receive me.

So you you you want to treat one another the way you're supposed to because of your relationship to angels and because of your relationship to Christ. Christ comes to you in every believer. And finally, because of your relationship to God. Go down to verse 12. What do you think?

If a man has a hund sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 which have not gone astray.

So it is not the will of your father who is in heaven that one of these little ones be devastated. How do you care for one another in the body of Christ? You are called to make sure that you receive every other believer as you would receive Christ.

That you never have a negative influence lead another believer into temptation or sin because of your relationship to angels, because of your relationship to Christ, because of your relationship to God himself. The duty of this fellowship is to be an instrument of holiness in the life of every other believer.

An instrument of holiness in the life of every other believer. This embraces the one anothers of the New Testament. confessing your sins one to another, forgiving one another, loving one another, exhorting one another, edifying one another, teaching one another, admonishing one another, praying for one another. You know, all those that's the fellowship.

Very personal, very personal. Everything about it militates against privacy, isolation, narcissism, self-centeredness. And one last point since our time is gone. What is the result? Simply stated, 1 John chapter 1. Again, just take a quick look at it. 1 John chapter 1, I read verse three where it talks about the fact that God is creating through salvation a fellowship, a fellowship with us and with the father and with his son.

And then in verse four, these things we write so that our joy may be made complete. When you understand the fellowship, when you cultivate the fellowship, when the fellowship is what it should be, the result is joy. The result is joy. I'll just tell you this. where you have a congregation of people pursuing the realities of fellowship.

You have a manifest joy. You have a joy that transcends all the aches and pains of life. You have a joy that comes out of shared sacrifice and meaningful spiritual relationships that show up in every temporal aspect as well. You know, the one thing that blesses me more than anything else around here is joy.

Joy in my own life, joy in our church. It's the product of living in the fullness of the fellowship.