Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Acts 2:41-47
Main Idea: The Importance of Fellowship among Christians/ disciples of Jesus
Objectives: a. To teach the importance of fellowship in Church and its theological reason. b. To show the congregation how to fellowship in a biblical sense and do it.
A. Introduction
- After being an English speaking for 16 years in 4 English congregations in Bintulu (1995 to 1997), Kuching (1998 to 2001) and Miri (2002 to 2010), I always felt we need to work harder on fellowship in the church; we need to do more fellowship like that of apostles and disciples of Jesus in the book of Acts; all the more as it was mentioned in the passage today.
- May be this church has no problem in the area of fellowship; may be those churches which I pastor last time have improved in their fellowship.
- Whatever it is, I say we need to work harder because LCEC leaders (pastor is also included) tend to disagree and differ in doing ministry from one another. LCEC leaders seem not to discern the strong burden in their pastor’s heart for certain ministry; pastor may not know the actual reasons of the disagreement; pastor may not know the reasons for the struggles in their careers which may affect their view of ministry in church; church leaders or pastor may not know even most of our fellow church members’ name especially if a church is more than 100 persons; not to mention to understand their needs.
- I pray that as we learn from the early’s disciples and apostles’ fellowship, we will be challenged to work harder at our fellowship regardless of whether we have a problem or not.
- I name the sermon today as “Irreplaceable Fellowship” because it was something the early apostles and disciples emphasized all the time and it was something they could not do without. We cannot avoid modelling them as it was the most natural way the early disciples and apostles got close with one another and grew in spiritual maturity and impacted the non-Christian world at that time. I dare say that without the fellowship at that time, the gospel may not spread as far those countries in the Mediterranean seas.
- Let us see the exciting background leading towards the passage today.
B. Background of the early Disciples’ Fellowship
- Remember before the passage today, the 120 apostles and disciples of Jesus received the Holy Spirit in the most spectacular manner. After that apostle Peter preached the Holy Spirit empowered sermon which resulted in people from different nations far and near, including the Jews, experienced the cutting of their hearts, and they asked Peter in verse 37, “Brother, what shall we do?” Peter, still under the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, answered in verses 38, 39, “ Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
- Obviously, the people acted in repentance for verse 41 in today’s passage says, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” Wasn’t that exciting? Although these people who repented after listening to the sermon of Peter did not see Jesus with their own eyes, they repented because Jesus was real to them.
- After the conversions, what do you expect them to do? Some might have gone back home; a lot must have come from Jerusalem. Do you expect them to keep quiet and do nothing about their new found faith? Do you think they can afford to forget totally about the heart cutting experience; how they were convicted of their sins and repented; and not talk about it with their loved ones? No, no and no.
- Praise the Lord for the record in the book of Acts is very clear about their response after they return home.
C. Exegesis of the Passage
- In verse 42, the author Luke recorded with all the excitement , I can imagine, what happened to the new believers after they dispersed from the audience of Peter’s preaching, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Take note, all these 4 elements of Christian and spiritual practice started right there and then. The breaking of bread probably included having meal together and the holy communion which was commanded by Jesus for His apostles and disciples.
- The 4 elements of spiritual practices look so easy, simple and require not much effort to get together, each one of them is distinct in its function and meaning from others. Each time they gathered together, it was unavoidable that they taught and learnt the apostles’ teaching by word of mouths and recall from memory all the teachings of Jesus to the 11 apostles.
- They were very close in fellowship. In fact, in verses 44 to 47, we were told that they were so close and sympathized with one another in terms of great sharing of their possessions as they had everything in common. They sold their possessions and gave to everyone as he had need. Every day they met at temple courts. Most probably, they looked forward to see each other in the temple courts.
- They always met together for meals with sincere and glad hearts; also for the purpose of breaking of bread in terms of the Lord’s Supper/ Holy Communion as we called it today.
- And they praised God regularly.
- However, I do not know if you notice or not, each time they gathered for the 4 elements of spiritual practice, each one of them was undergirded by fellowship. In apostolic teaching, you need to do fellowship, you need to interact, exchange and sharing of ideas, asked questions, clear the doubts, and you have fellowship.
- When it came to the meals or the Lord’s Supper, you need to speak to one another in confession of sins, you need to pray to God and ask God for forgiveness, you need to share the food.
- In prayer, you need to fellowship, you associate and participate in the lives of others as you are asked to pray for others and others pray for you; you thank God and praise God, etc.
- The concept of fellowship, the Greek word is kononia. It means association, participation, sharing. However, when this word was used in the early apostles and disciples, it carried with it a great spiritual significance. You need to be conscious and be greatly aware of it. The early believers, the disciples and apostles had the Holy Spirit in their lives. In verse 39, Peter who was empowered by the Holy Spirit preached to those who repented would receive the Holy Spirit. In others, when the early believers met, they had the Holy Spirit who lived in them. That means the presence of the Holy Spirit in their fellowship whenever they gathered.
- Otherwise, you cannot explain the unusual phenomenon of many miraculous signs and wonders which were done by the apostles in verse 43. You cannot explain the glad and sincere hearts in breaking of bread; and enjoyed the favour of all the people, I believe including the non-Christian loved ones, relatives and friends and neighbours very much notice the differences in them. And in verse 47, it says, “... the Lord added to their number daily those who were saved.” It was the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit who was present in the believers who caused the conversions of family members, neighbours, friends and many others.
- It was the spiritual fellowship (unlike any other social gatherings which do not the presence of the Holy Spirit), the presence of the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit who produced all the effects of conversions.
D. Applications
- This has very serious implications for the universal church of Christ on earth, do you know that?
- One very serious implication of the passage today is, you and I got to believe with the might of your heart, mind, soul and everything inside us that whenever Christians and disciples of Jesus like you and me gather in fellowship in Christ’s name, the mighty Holy Spirit, the spirit of Christ is among us, that same Spirit who did miraculous signs and wonders, is also with us, doing His work, in no lesser degree than what happened at that time? Do you have the faith to say Amen to that?
- For the reason of the presence of the Holy Spirit, I always tell people that, “When God’s people gather together, there are always wonderful things that happen!” It has become a spiritual slogan in my life and I hope it is the same for you. Can you repeat it after me and remember it so that you are very conscious of the work of the Holy Spirit in any fellowship.
- But wait a minute, why is it that the miraculous signs and wonders, the filling with awe, the favour of all people and the addition of people to our church daily are not happening?
- The top reason based on the passage today is majority of brothers and sisters are not able to practise meeting and fellowshipping everyday as verse 46, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts...” Because we have not met as often as we must, the presence of the Holy Spirit is weak among us, so we now see less of miraculous signs and wonders, daily conversions, etc.
- How can we expect God to move if a church as a whole does not pray much? We do not even pray for conversions or salvations of the people around us, how can we expect God to touch lives? Even if we pray for them, we may be lukewarm in our prayers. Some of us may even feel that we are not up to the mark to evangelize to the people whom we know who have needs because we have disobedient.
- The sermon today really calls us not to cut down on fellowship but we must increase our fellowship in every manner possible.
- I want to encourage all of you to join a cell group where the 4 elements (apostolic teaching in the form of bible studies; fellowship as explained; refreshment; and much prayer) of spiritual practice are done. You may not Holy have Communion when you meet weekly but you can have simple refreshment.
- I believe when the new believers and apostles and disciples met in fellowship in the early days they always could not wait to witness to one another about God in the person of Jesus was doing in their lives. They were so excited to tell it day in and day out. The people around them could see the great transformation in their lives and so the believers invited them to join their fellowship, they would just go and see for themselves why their lives were transformed. Furthermore, they were blessed by the deeds (sharing of goods) of the believers; they felt loved by this God of the Christians through the deeds of the Christians.
- Similarly, when you all get together, you must go for deeper fellowship. It means your bible studies, prayer, fellowship and refreshment must first and foremost, focus on what Jesus is doing in your life. Link everything to it and make sure that it is reflected in your lives after the cell group. It means your witness and your everyday life must be consistent.
- Next, in a deeper fellowship, you must always learn to be open and transparent with one another. You got to be open about your struggles; even confession of sins as you are led by the Spirit to do it; your weaknesses; your difficulties and needs, so that your cell group members can support and pray for you. When you acknowledge your vulnerabilities before man and God, you show that you need God very much in your lives, you learn to depend on God with humility and let go of your pride. When you do that in a cell group, the presence of the Spirit of Jesus will be strongly felt as we pray for one another. And as cell group members commit to pray and help and support in any way possible, you see wonderful things happened. You see Jesus at work in your life and in others’ life.
- When a cell group is open enough to share personal things for prayer, do not condemn him or her, come in and support by all means. It is a wonderful opportunity to share how Jesus loves you with him or her.
- One word of conscious, by all means keep all the details to yourself and only use the details to pray and glorify God.
- Soon, you find that your cell group will multiply because new people are touched by your love for them and they will come and stay and be saved.
- As you pay the price to do it, at the end of the day, you will experience revival in the making in Agape Methodist Church!
E. Conclusion
- You see why I entitled my sermon “Irreplaceable Fellowship.” You miss the fellowship where the Holy Spirit is present, you miss so much.
- I preach to you today in Jesus’ name, failure for you to come for deeper fellowship, you cannot be a strong disciple of Jesus. In fact, you will become a weaker Christian or a disciple of Jesus when you are alone.
