What Every Christian Should Know by Francis Dixon (Scripture Portion: Philippians 1: 1-20) Whenever the apostle Paul thought of the Christians at Philippi he thanked God for their ‘fellowship in the gospel’. What did he...
Steven J. Cole. Steve served as the pastor of Flagstaff Christian Fellowship from May, 1992 through his retirement in December, 2018. From 1977-1992 he was the pastor of Lake Gregory Community Church in Crestline, California.
Three Reasons for Confidence – Philippians 1:3-8. 1 (3) I thank my God whenever I remember you. (4) In all my prayers for all of you I always pray with joy, (5) because of your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.
What is Christian fellowship and why is fellowship so important? The early Christians clearly emphasized the importance of fellowship. Acts 2:42 notes, "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."
There are people who talk about being a part of “a” fellowship—they use the term as synonymous as being a part of a local church or congregation. They believe that by coming to a church building and by attending the activities of that particular organized group of people, they then may consider themselves members of that fellowship.
Fellowship has also come to signify a spiritual atmosphere that will soothe and secure a person from the life they live. Given this meaning, fellowship can become something like “hot-tub religion”—a place where people go to feel good and escape their problems. Some people think of fellowship as one of those archaic “church” words. And in some respects it does seem tailor-made for earlier generations, fitting the culture and times of 1611 King James English far more than our 21st century English culture and society.
The church is a fellowship of those who serve Jesus because He bought them with His blood. That service sometimes includes being persecuted. Paul mentions how the Philippians were partners with him in his imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel (1:7).
The point is, every Christian has a role to fulfill by serving in Christ’s army. The Lord saved you to serve, and serving Him isn’t always easy or free from strife and conflict. But it knits us together in fellowship when we join in serving Him. True fellowship means praying and serving Christ together.
As you read our text, it is obvious that Paul had a relationship of close fellowship with this church. It wasn’t what often goes by the label “fellowship” in American Christianity, the superficial chatting about sports or the weather over coffee and donuts. Even though they were miles apart, Paul’s heart was tied up with these people, and their hearts were with him. There was no natural explanation for this closeness between this Asian Jew who was now in prison in Rome and these European people who themselves were no homogeneous group. What knit them together was true Christian fellowship.
Fellowship, as the Bible describes it, is much more than Christian social activity. It is more than enjoying food together, or playing games in a Christian atmosphere, or chatting with one another about the events of the past week. This doesn't mean that there is no place for such activities.
Luke described this Body of believers, newly formed on the day of Pentecost, as people "devoted to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer" ( Acts 2:42 ). We're not too surprised that Luke mentions their attention ...
Paul was urging the Corinthian believers to have fellowship with Christians they had never even met and never would meet: the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. They were not going to have coffee and doughnuts together with these people in need; they were going to dig down into their pockets to help meet the needs of these believers who shared together with them a common life in Christ.
Sharing our possessions with others should be a natural consequence of our realization that biblical fellowship denotes both a relationship and a partnership.
Yet even they fail to capture the rich, full meaning of the fellowship described in the New Testament. The Greek word for fellowship is koinonia. It is translated several ways in the New Testament: for example, "participation," "partnership," "sharing," and, of course, "fellowship.".
When a parent meets a need of one of his children, we do not think of that act as an expression of benevolence but as an expression of relationship . It is both his privilege and his duty to meet that need because he is the parent. In the same manner, believers have both a privilege and a duty to share with each other as fellow members of the same Body.
In the same manner, believers have both a privilege and a duty to share with each other as fellow members of the same Body. Similarly, in a partnership the partners share in both the income and the expenses, both the assets and the liabilities of the partnership. It should be the same way in the fellowship of the Church.
The church is a fellowship of those who serve Jesus because He bought them with His blood. That service sometimes includes being persecuted. Paul mentions how the Philippians were partners with him in his imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel (1:7).
The point is, every Christian has a role to fulfill by serving in Christ’s army. The Lord saved you to serve, and serving Him isn’t always easy or free from strife and conflict. But it knits us together in fellowship when we join in serving Him. True fellowship means praying and serving Christ together.
As you read our text, it is obvious that Paul had a relationship of close fellowship with this church. It wasn’t what often goes by the label “fellowship” in American Christianity, the superficial chatting about sports or the weather over coffee and donuts. Even though they were miles apart, Paul’s heart was tied up with these people, and their hearts were with him. There was no natural explanation for this closeness between this Asian Jew who was now in prison in Rome and these European people who themselves were no homogeneous group. What knit them together was true Christian fellowship.