Sermon January 17 "Knowing Christ Through Fellowship"

The first church was devoted to fellowship- koinonia. Acts 2:44 says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common [koinos].”

One image that the Apostle Paul uses for the church is that of “the body of Christ.” We looked at I Corinthians 12:21-27 where Paul says, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

As the church we represent how Christ is revealing himself to the world. To a person we represent the care and character of Christ. When we suffer along side of someone who is hurting we are Jesus’ compassion to them. When we rejoice with someone who celebrates we are the delight of Christ to them.

As the church, we are not only capable of revealing Christ to each other we are called to do just that. When we see ourselves as the body of Christ and live in connection to one another as a result, it is through that kind of fellowship that we come to know Christ more fully.

We looked at 3 ways in which this first body in Jerusalem came to know Christ through fellowship.

1
Acts 2:45, “Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”
Part of fellowship means a willingness to sacrifice on behalf of the needs of others- to give of ones self.

In allowing ourselves to admit our needs, and being willing to do with less to meet the needs of others we will come to know Christ more fully through our fellowship.

2
Acts 2:46a, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.”
We must remember, there were no church buildings. There was no place that was the church. The temple courts were simply the public. The temple courts were busy with hundreds of not thousands of people. They were the church not defined by a gathering place. They were the church not defined by a gathering time.

In seeing the whole of our lives as the living out of who we are as the church we will come to know Christ more fully through our fellowship.

3
Acts 2:46b, “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”
Part of fellowship means having lives that are open to each other. These people ate together. They sat around dinner tables around Jerusalem and laughed and cried and prayed and shared the stuff of life with one another. We ought not diminish or downplay the place of sharing a meal with our church family.

A commitment to the table with one another is a commitment to knowing Christ more fully through fellowship.

Pastor Scott
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