AN UNPREACHED SERMON (211)
After a recent operation I was confined to the house while recovering and legally unable to drive for six weeks. Dependence on others gave me a new insight into my own temperament and character. For most of the weeks I found plenty to occupy my time, although the days were long. Worst of all were the Sundays when I couldn’t get to church. From the age of three, church and Sunday worship have been part and parcel of my life. I now know what our forefathers used to call “a dry Sabbath”.
Throughout the week I was content to read my Bible, delve into books I had only skimmed through before and generally do what had to be done around the house. Granted, I could also do these things on the Sundays; but there was something missing that even live stream services could not fill. In a word, it was fellowship; that sense of belonging to something bigger than your own personal devotional life which forms the living, interactive link with those of the same heart and mind.
The New Testament word for fellowship is KOINONIA (pronounced koy-no-neea) and carries with it the idea of partnership, sharing and togetherness. It means to have things in common with others. Like so many of the Bible’s words it has a richness within it that can never be adequately conveyed by a simple one-word translation. We automatically see it as a religious word, but it was widely used in other spheres in Bible times. People used KOINONIA when they spoke about
People in a business partnership
Two life-long friends supporting each other
Sharing with another a piece of property or a possession
Having a common goal and objective in life
It comes as no surprise to find all these ideas scattered throughout the New Testament and pressed into service to express the depth of intimacy that exists between believers with each other, and all believers with God Himself. “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).
These insights into the real meaning of Christian fellowship go a long way to explaining why when we can’t get to church, there is a big hole which nothing else can fill. As John Wesley insisted, “The New Testament knows nothing of solitary religion”. It also explains why the writer to the Hebrews warns against falling into the habit of neglecting to meet with other Christians (Hebrews 10:25). The slippery slope away from Christ and His church often has its origins in getting out of the habit of regular worship. It’s a slow developing disease which goes under the Glaswegian name of “ahlnogoradae”
When we come into membership of a congregation, usually there is a promise we take on board along the lines of “I promise to join regularly in worship with my fellow Christians on the Lord’s Day”.
Because we believe who God is and have committed our lives to Jesus Christ in personal faith,
it follows that we will want to worship Him, and do so with others of a like mind.
It means I am united to all others who have made the same commitment.
It implies God does not want us to go it alone
It teaches us that we need each other
Habitual Sunday worship is designed to be the norm for all Christians. We have a moral obligation in this area for our own sake and for the sake of others. In the final analysis we should be kept away by very few things, which probably boil down to just three:
Illness, old age and immobility
Necessary work
Unforeseen crises or emergencies
When I was a student in Bible College in the early 70’s, Thursday night was “The Class Meeting” - a gathering of students and staff in the College Chapel. It was a traditional Methodist fellowship time with plenty of singing, a short Bible talk occasionally from a visiting speaker, and then an open time of sharing when anyone was free to stand up and say something. Many of those meetings were memorable and life changing, filled as they were with humour, honesty, prayer, unity and soul baring. After the benediction we always sang the same two Charles Wesley verses:
“And if our fellowship below
In Jesus be so sweet,
What heights of rapture shall we know
When round His throne we meet.
He bids us build each other up
And gathered into one;
To our high calling’s glorious hope
We hand in hand go on”.
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