Showing posts with label Fellowship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fellowship. Show all posts

The Benefits Of Christian Fellowship



Text: Acts 2:42-47; Hebrews 10:23-25

In every generation, God always have a faithful remnant among His children tasked with evangelizing the world with the gospel so that people can be converted to Christ and be brought into a living fellowship with Him and with one another. These responsible believers, in time, become fruitful and reproductive Christians.

As born again Christians, we are part of the body of Christ, but we must be members of a local assembly where there are opportunities for personal growth, carrying on the Great Commission, strengthening our faith and fellowshipping with one another.

Christian fellowship is an absolute necessity in the life of every believer. Whenever and wherever a Christian is isolated from others who have similar relationship with Jesus Christ, something would be missing from his or her life.

Though a person may have fellowship with Christ through prayer and study of the Word, mutual encouragement and strengthening that come from association with other believers will be absent.

Christian fellowship challenges us to grow in grace, pray for one another and reach those outside the fold of Christ. Through fellowship, we receive needed encouragement in time of weariness, failure and discouragement. Fellowship provides correction necessary for our spiritual growth.

We cannot become the men and women God wants us to be if we are out of fellowship of the brethren. “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed” (Proverbs 13:20).

When we are in the company of others who know the Saviour and are committed to Him, we will grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord.


THE TRUTH MEDIA
...building the body of Christ

Fellowship With The Father



Text: 1 John 1:1-4

Key Verse: “We 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” (1 John 1:3).

Why is it that some Christians seem to be transformed by contact with Jesus Christ, but others are not? Some Christians, even Christians of long standing, still seem to be very much conformed to the world around them, even deformed in their views and outlooks. Yet all of them stoutly assert that they are Christians, that they too have been born again by faith in Jesus Christ. It is not strange that the world asks, What is wrong? Why is this condition true? The secret, John says, is fellowship.

What is fellowship? In the Navy we used to say it was two fellows on the same ship, and there is a sense in which that is true. They do have something in common—the same ship. That is the basis of fellowship, for essentially this word means to have all things in common. When you have something in common with another, you can have fellowship with that person. If you have nothing in common, you have no fellowship.

We all have things in common. We share human life in common. Most of us share American citizenship in common. But John is talking about that unique fellowship that is the possession only of those who share life in Jesus Christ together. This makes them one, and this oneness is the basis for the appeal of Scripture: to live together in tenderness and love toward one another. Not because we are inherently wonderful people or remarkable personalities or that we are naturally gracious, kind, loving, and tender all the time—for at times we are grouchy, scratchy, and irritating to others. But we are still to love one another. Why? Because we share life together. We have something in common. We share the life of the Lord Jesus, and therefore we have fellowship with one another.

We must understand the difference between relationship and fellowship. Relationship is becoming a member of the family of God by faith in Jesus Christ. It is established by asking Him to come into your life and heart. John makes that clear at the end of this letter. He who has the Son has life (that is relationship); he who does not have the Son of God does not have life (he does not have a relationship) 1 John 5:12.


The Christian life starts right there with this matter of relationship. Relationship is accepting Christ; fellowship is experiencing Him. You can never have fellowship until you have established relationship, but you can certainly have relationship without fellowship. Relationship puts us into the family of God, but fellowship permits the life of that family to shine through us. That is what marks the difference between Christians.

Fellowship is the key to vital Christianity. That is why this letter of Apostle John, which calls us back to fundamental issues, focuses first on that. The important question is, as a Christian, are you enjoying fellowship with the Father and with His Son?

*** Culled from Ray Stedman Ministry Daily Devotional | www.raystedman.org ***


THE TRUTH MEDIA
...building the body of Christ