A visitor comes into the auditorium a few minutes before the morning service. You greet him and chat for a moment before asking what brought him to your church. He says, “I’m new in town, and I’m looking for a place to fellowship and serve the Lord. Today, I’m visiting here, and the church down the street tonight, with two other churches next week.” When I heard just that sort of this last Sunday, my first thought was: “Hey look no farther. You don’t have to go down the street. Stay on the high road.” “If you are looking for Christian fellowship and fellowship with the Father and with his Son, here we are.” But will that visitor from last Sunday be back? Experience tells me that it is unlikely.
This evening, I’d like to tie up a few loose ends in these four verses of John’s introduction. They revolve around the word “fellowship” which I used a minute ago. “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” Why is it that ninety-eight out a hundred who say they are looking for Christian fellowship don’t find it here? That may not exactly be my theme, but I have to confess that it is in the back of my mind.
Among John’s secondary purposes for writing this epistle is “fellowship.” That word ties all four of these verses together, while pointing us toward the rest of the letter.
First, we need to understand what John means by the word “FELLOWSHIP.”
I’m afraid that most of the people coming through our front doors don’t know what Biblical fellowship is. It is the relatively common Greek word “koinonia.” There used to be a world-wide religious ministry head-quartered on the east side of our little town. Locally, it was called “Koinonia House,” but it was like the universal invisible church, there wasn’t much koinonia going on here. It was primarily about that world-wide ministry. I’m not sure that Chuck Missler knew, or practiced, what the word meant.
“Koinonia” is used twenty-times in eighteen New Testament verses. In our King James Bibles it is translated “fellowship” a dozen times. The next most common translation is “communion.” But then it is also rendered “communication,” “contribution” and “distribution.” I know I shared all this with you when we studied Philippians, because the word is common in that epistle. Fellowship speaks community, like a close-knit family. It involves sharing – the sharing of love, of goods, of joys and even of problems. It is seen in common greetings like two brethren shaking hands. There is a fellowship in a Christian hug.
Consider some of those New Testament verses. The church in Jerusalem “continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and FELLOWSHIP, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” In Acts 2:42 notice the tying together of “doctrine and fellowship.” Paul told the church in Corinth, “it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain CONTRIBUTION for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.” “Contribution” is the same Greek word. Fellowship is not just pleasant banter between good friends. It is a matter of genuine, substantial sharing. Then Paul reminded the Corinthians, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what COMMUNION hath light with darkness?” There can be no sharing between light and darkness. They are mutually exclusive. They repulse one another. Then Paul used the word again praising them for their liberal distribution of funds and goods. He told the Galatians, “when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars (in the Jerusalem church), perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of FELLOWSHIP; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.” That same apostle speaks of fellowship of the mystery, fellowship in the gospel, and fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, being made conformable unto Jesus’ death. And, “if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any FELLOWSHIP of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy…” The believer may enjoy the fellowship OF the Spirit, but it is not the same as fellowship WITH the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the ground and substance of our fellowship with other believers and with the Lord’s work
When John says that he was writing to Christians that they might have fellowship with him and with God, he was talking about more than shaking hands and chatting about the weather. It wasn’t about sitting at the same table for a meal, even though sharing food is often a part the fellowship. He was talking about the sharing of food because without it people would go hungry. The fellowship which John was promoting was that of putting on the yoke of Christ and pulling the plow of the gospel along side other believers. “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
“That ye also may have fellowship with US.”
Who do you suppose was the “us” to which John referred? This book is not like many of Paul’s epistles, where he introduced Timothy, Luke and Silas. John may have been the pastor of the church in Ephesus at this time. But this wasn’t a general invitation posted on Facebook, inviting people to come to the Fall Fellowship at the First Baptist Church. He wasn’t saying, “Come to the capital of all Asia to have fellowship with Andrew, Peter and me.”
And yet he probably was thinking about Andrew, Peter, Matthew, James and himself. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled… declare we unto you… that (we) might have fellowship.” Who was it who laid their hands, their eyes and their heads upon Christ Jesus, the Word of Life? John was thinking about the Apostles – the first disciples.
And this helps us to define the nature of this “fellowship.” The apostles were scattering around the world by this time, taking the gospel in different directions. At some point the apostles ceased to have monthly or yearly meetings, celebrating church anniversaries. And yet, believers from around the world could still fellowship with them through the mutual ministry of the gospel. Just as the Philippians could fellowship with Paul in his sufferings or in his ministry, John’s readers could fellowship with Peter and Andrew. They, too, could touch, see and study the One who is the Word of God, through the sharing of God’s Word. John was saying, “I’m telling you about the incarnate Word of God, that we all may have communion with Him.”
We can fellowship with John and Peter, as we fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
It is a thing of the past, but there once was a day when city-wide evangelistic campaigns were common. Famous preachers, with their famous soloists, would rent the largest arena in town, and for two or three weeks, preach to standing-room-only crowds. Those preachers would bring together Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists and Charismatics, blurring the doctrinal divisions between them. And then came a new breed of evangelist who even incorporated Catholics, Campbellites and even cults. They shared a kind of fellowship which overlooked the vast differences in the gospels they each were preaching at home. Sadly, over the decades of their popularity, thousands were swept into the kingdom who never met King.
That is not the fellowship to which John refers. His letter was being written “that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” The fellowship, communion and partnership to which John refers is anchored in the Father and the Son. It is anchored in the Word of Life, which was there in the beginning and Who was from the beginning. This fellowship is with the infinite God who chose to become a man in order to die for our sins. It is the fellowship of God the Father and equally with God the Son.
John’s brand of fellowship is not a doctrine-less fist full of cotton candy. It has substance. And it is about Biblical substance. I don’t see God telling Moses that the Egyptian religion is nothing but a shallow worship of Jehovah. He wasn’t told to fellowship with Ra, Osiris and Isis. And the Lord Jesus didn’t tell the Pharisees and Sadducees that their religion was weak but tolerable. He said they were hypocrites and not worthy of communion with Him.
Remember, one of the definitions of “fellowship” is “partnership.” I know that II Cor. 6 isn’t exactly speaking of precisely the same thing, but the principle is the same: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what FELLOWSHIP hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what CONCORD hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what AGREEMENT hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” Paul was telling the Corinthians that Biblical fellowship between believers must be based on proper fellowship with God. “And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
And again, who is the God of I John? Who is his Son Jesus Christ? We have established that John was talking about the man often called Jesus of Nazareth. We’ve also tried to show that Jesus is the eternal Word of God, the Creator. It was He who spoke life into existence, and it was He who said, “Lazarus come forth.”
I’m not sure don’t think I emphasized sufficiently that Christ is Life – ETERNAL LIFE. Notice verse 2 – speaking of Jesus, “the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.” Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is life – “I am the way the truth and the life.” And He is that “that ETERNAL LIFE who was with the father and was manifested unto us.” John 3:36 – “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
And the man or woman who fellowships with the Father and the Saviour… The humble believer who has fellowship with the triune God… He who is a partaker of their divine nature, may enjoy that joy, that John wants to share. “These things have I written unto you believe on the name of the Son of God that he may know that he have eternal life…” “That your joy may be full.”