Sermon Tone Analysis

FELLOWSHIP [2842 koinwni,a :: koinonia]

Love, Intimacy, Service, Reconciliation, Forgiveness, Bearing Burdens, Unity, Community

One of the first lessons of our Lord in His school of prayer was: Not to be seen of men.

NAS "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

Enter your inner chamber; be alone with the Father.

When He has thus taught us that the meaning of prayer is personal individual contact with God, He comes with a second lesson: You have need not only of secret solitary prayer, but also of public united prayer.

And He gives us a very special promise for the united prayer of two or three who agree in what they ask.

NAS "Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.

20 "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst."

As a tree has its root hidden in the ground and its stem growing up into the sunlight, so prayer needs equally for its full development the hidden secrecy in which the soul meets God alone, and the public fellowship with those who find in the name of Jesus their common meeting-place.

The reason why this must be so, is plain.

The bond that unites a man to his fellow believers is no less real and close than that which unites him to God: he is one with them.

Grace renews not only our relation to God but to man too.

We not only learn to say “My Father,” but “Our Father.”

Nothing would be more unnatural than the children of a family always meet their father separately, but never in the united expression of their desires or their love.

In the New Testament, koinonía signifies having a share in something, or sharing with someone in something, or you could say participation in something or with someone.

When we drink the cup and eat the bread we share in the benefits of the slain body and shed blood of Jesus.

We have a share in what death achieved ().

They wanted to have a share in sending financial relief to the poor in Jerusalem ().

Paul wanted to have a share in the sufferings of Christ; to participate with him in suffering for the gospel ().*

So koinonía can be a sharing in the benefits of the death of Jesus, or in the financial relief of the saints, or in the sufferings of Christ.

So, when we talk about Christian koinonia — fellowship or sharing or participation that is unique to our relationship with other believers — what we are referring to is the shared union, the shared participation that we have together with Christ.

“Fellowship is a mutual bond that Christians have with Christ that puts us in a deep, eternal relationship with one another.”*

Believers are not only members of one family, but even of one body.

Just as each member of the body depends on the other members, the full action of the spirit dwelling in the body depends on the union and co-operation of all members; so a solitary Christian cannot reach the full blessing God is ready to bestow through His Spirit, except as they seek and receive it in fellowship with each other.

It is in the union and fellowship of believers that the Spirit can manifest His full power.

[1] Fellowship with other Christians is thus at the heart of our Christian experience.

Our relationship with God through Christ binds us together as the body of Christ.

Paul says in “You were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Which implies both sharing vertically in the union each of us has in Christ, and sharing together with other believers the common union we have with Christ and each other.

That sharing together in the Father and the Son is certainly the case in .

ESV That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us [that you may share in what we have seen and heard]; and indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

When you share with us in the realities we have seen and heard, namely the realities of Jesus, then you share not only with us, but you share with us in our sharing in the Father and the Son.*

The church is an active, living entity.

It participates in the affairs of this world, it exhibits the way of life that God intends for all people, and it proclaims God’s Word for the present age.

The spiritual unity and purity of the church stand in bold contrast to the enmity and corruption of the world.

It is the church’s responsibility in all the particular congregations in which it becomes visible to practice unity, love, and care in a way that shows that Christ truly lives in those who are members of His body, so that their life is His life in them.

[2]

[John Piper on Fellowship] –

So when I talk about Christian fellowship as a means of perseverance, the fellowship I have in mind is the mutual bond (and I think mutual would be the adjective form of koinonía in English) that Christians have with Christ that unites us in a profound and eternal relationship of love that should express itself in joyful and affectionate service to/for each other’s good.

Christian fellowship is aware of a profound, eternal relationship of love governed by Paul’s exhortation

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

()

The most important passage in the Bible to make this point – that Christian fellowship is a means of perseverance in faith is

ESV “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God day.

But exhort one another every day as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

“Making it to the end in faith shows that we were real — we had indeed come to share in Christ.”

Verse 14 is the ground or the reason for the two imperatives in verses 12 and 13, “Take care!”

And “Exhort one another!”

And the reason is this, the tenses are very important: Take care, and exhort each other, “because we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

It does not say, “If we hold our confidence firm, we will have a share in Christ.”

It says, “If we hold our confidence firm to the end, we have shared in Christ.”

This means that perseverance to the end in faith is a necessary confirmation that we have been born again.

Making it to the end in faith shows that we were real — we had indeed come to share in Christ.

All sin is a lie because nothing is more preferable than God.

Therefore, all sin, which consists in preferring anything to God, is lying to us.”

So that’s the ground of these two imperatives in verses 12 and 13: “Take care!” and “Exhort one another every day.”

Because you know that if your brother (and that is what he calls them in verse 12) — does not hold on to his confidence to the end, he will prove himself to have never shared in Christ.

He will be lost — whether he is called brother or not.

() And from that logic between verse 13 and verse 14 you infer, rightly:

“My (our) exhortation is one of God’s means for keeping my brother or my sister holding fast to Christ, and thus saving him from destruction.”

“You are God’s appointed means to keep your brother or sister from falling into sin.”

Look at the words of verse 12 and 13.

Verse 12: Don’t let there be an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away.

Then look at the description of that process in verse 13b: Don’t be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

We have at least five huge realities about to create a catastrophe: Hardness (verse 13); Sin (verse 13); Sin’s deceitfulness (verse 13); A heart marked by evil (verse 12); and by unbelief (verse 12).

How these actually work to bring about the catastrophe warned against is what Christian fellowship is designed by God to prevent: Sin can be spoken of subjectively, as something that we feel or do, or objectively, as something we are drawn to feel or do.

In either case sin, in essence, is a preference for anything over God.

Therefore, all sin — whether alluring us or being experienced by us — is deceitful.

All sin is a lie because nothing is more preferable than God.

Therefore, all sin, which consists in preferring anything to God, is lying to us.

When that deceit insinuates itself into the human heart, one description of the effect is hardness.

And hardness implies not easily touched or not easily penetrated with truth or beauty or preciousness.

This hardening heart is called in verse 12 “an evil heart of unbelief.”

Unbelief, therefore, is another way of describing what happens as the truth and beauty and worth of Christ become less and less desirable — less and less welcome, less able to touch and penetrate the hardening heart.

Because faith, in its essence, is not mere assent to truth about Christ,

but a heartfelt embrace of all the beauty and value that God is for us in Christ.

As the heart is deceived by the lie of sin — that anything is more desirable than God — it hardens, and the superior beauty and worth of Christ are no longer felt.

And this is called unbelief.

And the last thing to say about it is that it is evil.

It is an evil heart of unbelief (verse 12), because it is in the grip of sin’s delusion that other things are more desirable than God.

That is the essence of evil.

We know then what our job is in Christian fellowship.

Our job is to help each other keep this catastrophe from happening.

Specifically, in verse 13: “Exhort one another every day — while there still is a day — that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

You are God’s appointed means to keep this from happening to your brother or sister!

That is one of the great callings on your life as a Christian — all of us.

This is the calling of Christian fellowship — in all its forms.

If the essence of the deceit that leads to sin, hardness, unbelief, falling away (), and the eternal destruction, — if the essence of that deceit is making anything look preferable to God, look more desirable than God, more valuable than all that God is for us in Jesus, — if that is what leads to destruction, then what will be the essence of these exhortations?

Will it not be, God is better!

Christ is better!

His way is better.

And a thousand biblical and experiential descriptions of why his word, his way, his future, his greatness, his guidance, value, his beauty, his friendship is better.

“The pleasures of even the reproaches of Christ are greater wealth than the pleasures of Egypt.”

()

“Every exchange with others counts for eternity.

We are either weakening people’s affections for God, or strengthening them.”

[End – J.P.]

Passage adopted from: We Need Each Other Christian Fellowship as a Means of Perseverance

By John Piper https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/we-need-each-other

This highlights the importance of recognizing a relationship problem, and reconciling with an offended or offending brother or sister.

When we become aware of a relationship problem, we must immediately take steps to correct it.