Fellowship

Situational Awareness: Restoring Fellowship with Truth and Love (A Sermon on 3 John)

/ davidsschrock

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Situational Awareness: Restoring Fellowship with Truth and Love
(A Sermon on 3 John)

In 3 John, we move from the universal church of 1 John, to the local church of 2 John, to an individual Christian by the name of Gaius. Interestingly, if we titled 3 John the way we title 1–2 Timothy and Titus, this letter would actually be called Gaius, not 3 John. And though I don’t think we need to rename this letter, recognizing this name change helps us see how personal this letter is.

In fact, across its 15 verses, there are four individuals named (the Elder, Gaius, Diotrephes, and Demetrius), plus a group of traveling evangelists, who serve as faithful reporters to John, who in turn writes this letter to encourage Gaius and to communicate his intentions to come and address Diotrephes.

Long story short, this letter is filled with personal relationships. And as we think about fellowship, it is necessary to get into the specific details of such relationships. For in truth, not all relationships are equally good, healthy, or true.

Just the same, with fellowship focused on the Lord and his church, there are questions that Christians must ask about the relationships they form. How do we decide with whom to spend time? What is a healthy relationship? What is harmful? And how can we tell the difference?

On Sunday, I addressed those questions and more, as we finished our mini-series on “Restoring the Right Hand of Fellowship.” You can find the sermon here, and below are the twelve points of application I drew from 3 John. Continue reading →

Four Loves: The Path to True Fellowship

/ davidsschrock

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Four Loves: The Path to True Fellowship (A Sermon on 2 John)

In 2020, ESPN published a ten-part series call The Last Dance. The series followed the 1998 Chicago Bulls, the team led by Michael Jordan. This was the sixth and final championship series, the one that ended the dynasty.

As a basketball player growing up in the 1990s, this series was pure nostalgia. Every episode brought back memories and added backstories. It was the best of the old and the new. It returned me to a period of basketball glory, and it scratched a prevalent modern itch—the need to know all the details of what happened behind the scenes.

It’s funny a thing that today we live at a time when people think they need to know everything. Undercover surveillance, tell-all documentaries, and best-selling books by whistle-blowers are all uber-popular, and all of these feed the belief that we deserve all the facts.

Yet, such a god-like desire to know everything is confronted by the fallout of The Last Dance. That is to say that by bringing everything out the open, The Last Dance did untold harm. For not only did it reveal tensions and troubles from the 1990s, but it also started new fires. Continue reading →

How Fellowship Works: Cain, the Cross, and the Command to Love One Another

/ davidsschrock

UnknownHow Fellowship Works: Cain, the Cross, and the Command to Love One Another (A Sermon on 1 John 3:11–18)

Love. One. Another. If you type those three words into your search engine, you’ll find a dozen references.

The first two are found in John 13:34–35, when Jesus tells his disciples to love one another, just as he has loved them.  Next, “love one another” repeats in John 15:12 and 17, as Jesus connects the love of God with the love of God’s children.

Paul uses these same three words, when he says in Romans 12:10, “Love one another with brotherly affection.” And Peter echoes Paul’s brotherly instruction in 1 Peter 1:22, when he says, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.”

Those are the first six uses of “love one another.” Then the last six are found in John’s Epistles. One is found in 2 John 5 and five in 1 John 3–4 (1 John 3:11, 23; 4:7, 8, 12).

From this basic survey, then, we can conclude two things. First, the command to love one another is always a command to members of one body (Rom. 12:5) to love one another with brotherly affection. This command is not an abstract instruction for individuals to do loving things. It is a mutual command for the body of Christ to love those in Christ.

That’s the first thing. The second thing is that the passage that most fully details how to love one another is 1 John 3–4. And yesterday, as I preached again on the theme of fellowship, I looked at three things.

  1. The Command to Love One Another is a command fulfilled in the body of Christ.
  2. The Command to Love One Another is a command that rejects the violent competition of Cain.
  3. The Command to Love One Another is a command that finds life in the cross of Christ.

In short, to love another as God commands we must reject the spirit of Cain’s violent competition and embrace Christ and his willingness to put others ahead of himself. This is the key to abiding fellowship with God and one another. And yesterday, this is what I tried to show from 1 John 3:11–18. You can find that sermon here.

Check back later this week too, as I share parts 2 and 3 of “A Dangerous Calling: Two Ways to Seek Ministry.”

Soli Deo Gloria, ds

Restoring the Right Hand of Fellowship: A New Sermon Miniseries

/ davidsschrock

jack-sharp-ShCVvQbQBDk-unsplashFour Truths About Fellowship: A Sermon on 1 John 1:1–2:6

As we know all too well, sin always separates. And thus, when fellowship breaks, there is, lurking somewhere, sin unconfessed. In those times, it is tempting to fix the problem(s) with our own wisdom and to work overtime to recreate the fellowship that was had before. Yet, in times when fellowship is lost, we must remember that God alone can “fix” it. And accordingly we should seek him first and all his righteousness.

To put it seasonally, before the Lord gives his church spring rains, he often makes us feel the bitterness of winter’s cold. This coldness may have known sources, or its chilling drafts may strike us without ever revealing the source of their cold. Yet, whatever the source of winter, we should remember that God is working, and that spring is coming. As Hosea 6:1–3 tells us, we must remember that the Lord is the one who breaks us, so that he can bind us; he hurts us (or permits us to feel pain), so that he can heal us (see Psalm 105). Then, from this place of weakened condition, we are invited to return to know the Lord.

This is the promise: God will sanctify his people, and he will bring them to confess their sins. And until sin is confessed, joy will be withheld. Yet, when we seek his light and see our darkness, it will prompt true confession, repentance, forgiveness, and grace. And this grace will bring a new season of fellowship, all provided by the Lord. Continue reading →

Fellowship 101: Five Truths To Move Beyond Bubba’s Shrimp Scampi

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erika-giraud-7KhbREQPFD4-unsplashWhat does fellowship mean?

In Christian circles the word fellowship, and its Greek equivalent (koinōnia), is used for all kinds of things. There are fellowship meals, fellowship events, fellowship coordinators, fellowship halls, and even internship experiences called fellowships. Additionally, you have a ministry called Bible Study Fellowship, which labors to distinguish themselves from being a church, even as some individuals treat that ministry as their church. At the same time, there are churches who go by the name Bedrock Baptist Fellowship, or something like that. And you can find all sorts of resources aimed to improve fellowship.

With all its various uses, “fellowship” is the equivalent to Bubba’s endless array of Shrimp Dishes. Indeed, like shrimp kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, etc., fellowship goes with everything. Yet, by going with everything, its utility has permitted Christians to do many things with fellowship that go beyond the bounds of the Bible.

Again, what does fellowship mean?

If we open our concordances, we find the word koinōnia (fellowship, partnership) 19 times in the New Testament: Acts 2:42; Romans 15:26; 1 Corinthians 1:9; 10:16 [2x]; 2 Corinthians 6:14; 8:4; 9:13; 13:14; Galatians 2:9; Philippians 1:5; 2:1; 3:10; Philemon 6; Hebrews 13:16; and 1 John 1:3, 6, 7. From these uses, we might begin to see what God says about fellowship.

Clearly, any time we restrict ourselves to a word to form a doctrine or a practice we miss related concepts, metaphors, stories, and more. Yet, because this word is used so often to justify so many types of Christian activities, we would do well to examine the word. Do we have a faithful understanding of the word? And do we abide by it? Continue reading →

Fire in the Soul: A Few Reflections from Together for the Gospel 2018

/ davidsschrock

t4g.pngFor the last ten years, God has kindly provided me a season of refreshing every other April in the city of Louisville through a gathering known as Together for the Gospel. When I began going, I lived in that city as I studied at Southern Seminary. In 2010 our family moved fifty miles north to Southern Indiana. And in 2010, 2012, and 2014 I made the hour drive to attend the conference (Living in Northern Virginia, I now find it hard to believe you go 50-miles in under an hour). Twice in those years I drove that distance by myself; soon to see many friends, but alone in my participation from my church.

Like many who attended that conference I rejoiced in the time together, but also lamented the lack of interest from my church.

Fast forward to this year, and I stand amazed at God’s kindness in letting me worship God with 12,000+ people from all over the world and with 20 people from our own church. For three days, it was a joy to hear messages from Mark Dever, H.B. Charles, Ligon Duncan, Matt Chandler, and others, but what was most encouraging—most amazing to me!—was sitting in Section 210 with 20 brothers from Occoquan Bible Church. As David sang, “the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places” (Psalm 16:5).

For this last week at T4G, I praise God for his kindness in surrounding me with so many like-minded brothers in Christ. I marvel that 20 men from age 16 to 60-something would be willing to make a 10-hour drive to spend 3 days worshiping God. Little could I have imagined such a fellowship a few years ago, which heightens all the more my anticipation for how God might use the seeds sown last week in the lives of our church.

Here is a sampling of the encouragement we received last week from some of the brothers who went from our church.  Continue reading →

How the Lord’s Supper Retrains Our Appetites

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fooWhere should we eat? What should we eat? Where’s the best place to eat?

Whether we take time to think about it or not, questions about food come up every day. Wherever you live, food plays a large part in who we are. Restaurants are often associated with various countries, ethnicities, or even religious practices. Shall we eat at the Mexican grocery or the Kosher deli? Is this food on my diet? Where did it come from?

How we eat—or refuse to eat—says a lot about us. In a sense, we are all foodies—even if you prefer McDonald’s over the farmer’s market. Or to turn it around, dietary practices and table fellowship shape who we are. Studies have shown that children thrive on family dinners, while rigid commitment to veganism may result in deeper relationships with other herbivores and increased disgust with carnivores.

In these ways, food choices are ethical decisions. Eating is an undeniably moral activity. Therefore, as we sit down to “eat” the Lord’s Supper, we should ask: How does Scripture speak about food?
Continue reading →

Communion as a Community Meal

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bread

Because there is one bread,
we who are many are one body,
for we all partake of the one bread.
– 1 Corinthians 10:17 –

The Lord’s Supper is a treasury of Christ-remembering, kingdom-anticipating, church-unifying, soul-stirring symbolism. As Jesus said of the bread in Luke 22, “This is my body, which is given for you” (v. 19) and of the fruit of the vine, “This cup . . . is the new covenant in my blood” (v. 20). Laden with spiritual significance, both of these statements are symbolical. The bread represents the body of Christ (and more specifically the death of Jesus); the cup represents the blood of Christ (and more specifically the promise of new covenant pardon). Together they form the two elements Christians “take” and “eat” (Matthew 26:26).

However, these edibles do not exhaust the symbolism of the Lord’s Supper. Far from it, in fact. Consider Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:17. Calling the Corinthians to flee from idolatry (10:13), he cautions them about their practices of eating from the Lord’s table and the demons’ table (v. 20). In this context, he teaches us a twofold lesson about the nature of the Lord’s Supper. Continue reading →

All Together at the Lord’s Table

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eat[This article also appeared on our church website as a Lord’s Supper meditation]. 

In marriage a husband pledges to love and serve his wife, while the wife responds by promising to love and submit to her husband. The vows are made individually, but in context, they blend together to create a melodic harmony that binds the couple together.

Something similar can be said of our relationship with the Lord. In response to the gospel, each person must individually respond, but not in their own self-styled way. Repentance from sin and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ are the only way we enter into covenant relationship with God.

For this reason, the new covenant is singular not plural; all who find salvation enter into the same covenant. And since the new covenant has been given to the church made up of Jews and Gentiles, it is in the local church where we enjoy and experience the new covenant together. Continue reading →

Believing and Belonging: Which is the Source for True Fellowship?

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fellowsThe next time you read through the books of Acts, underline every time you find the word “believe.” At the same time, circle every time you find a mention of the Scriptures, the word, or preaching. What you will soon discover is how radically committed the New Testament church was to proclaiming the Word of God and calling for belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Everywhere the apostles went they proclaimed the Word. Empowered by the Spirit, they were called to be witnesses (Acts 1:8). Indeed, filled with the Spirit they fulfilled their calling of proclaiming the Word (Acts 4:31). As a result, in just a few short decades churches were planted all over the Mediterranean. And within three centuries, the early church would become the dominant world religion. Continue reading →