Less Yada yada…
Fellowship is a very common word these days and are used for all sorts of things we as christians do.
The dictionary defines fellowship as a company of people that share a common interest or aim.
That’s very broad then, substantiating it’s wide use in today’s life.
We would like to shine the Christian perspective on this word tonight so that when we get together as Christians we really do have fellowship together with one another, and with God! Because just being here doesn’t mean that you are fellowship-ping with the saints and God!
Koinonia : the early christians had fellowship together and today one hears the word “fellowship” a lot in Christian circles. The word Koinonia actually means “sharing”, “Unity”, “close associasion”, “partnership”, “participation”, “a Society”, “a Communion”, “Contributory help” and “the Brtotherhood”.
The basis of our message comes from this scripture:
II Corinthians 5:14: Clearly, Christ’s love guides us. We are convinced of the fact that one man has died for all people. Therefore, all people have died.
II Corinthians 5:15: He died for all people so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the man who died and was brought back to life for them.
II Corinthians 5:16: So from now on we don’t think of anyone from a human point of view. If we did think of Christ from a human point of view, we don’t anymore.
II Corinthians 5:17: Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old way of living has disappeared. A new way of living has come into existence.
II Corinthians 5:18: God has done all this. He has restored our relationship with him through Christ, and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships.
To understand Koinonia or more commonly termed fellowship we need to understand the spiritual realm…We need to understand the difference between spirit soul and body!
We are created as tri-partite beings accoring to 1 Thes 5:23 and we interact with each other in all three parts
We interact through physical and we interact through soul (mind, will and emotions) but too often we neglect interacting in spirit…the bible simply calls this knowing each other after the flesh and knowing each other after the spirit!
You can only know another person that has a born again spirit, after the spirit and therefore you can only really have fellowship with a person who is born again…
The bible encourage us to know no-one after the flesh any longer but to know one another after the spirit…
Why here’s why…
There used to be a time when people knew Jesus in the flesh. They knew his eating and drinking habits, they knew what he smelled like and what colour his eyes were! Some could have liked him and some could not have liked him a lot…
BUT there came a point when no matter, who, thought what, of him, all had to make a decision to start thinking of him differently!
Up to that point all thought of him as Jesus son of Joseph the Carpenter of Nazareth! But something was revealed of him in the last years of his life on earth that made him known as Jesus Christ the saviour and then later on as Christ the Annointed Lord and Saviour
Some started acknowledging him as the saviour but still didn’t grasp the fullness of it! Some even stated that He was the Son of God – Peter, when Jesus asked who do men say that I am, said that some say this and that, but when Jesus asked, who do YOU say that I am, said You are the Christ the son of the living God! But later when they are confronted with a mob in the Garden of Gethsemane, he reverts to physical force to protect Jesus, why because that’s what followers did to their leaders in a revolution!
People started believing in his teachings but they believed it in their own way! They continued to think that Jesus would be the person who leads them in revolt against the Romans and restore Israel as a ruling nation in that time!
Even after his resurrection his disciples still asked him when he would restore the kingdom back to Israel all the while looking at Christ Jesus but knowing him form a human point of view
Acts 1:4: Once, while he was meeting with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for what the Father had promised. Jesus said to them, “I’ve told you what the Father promises:
Acts 1:5: John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 1:6: So when the apostles came together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you’re going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Jesus is talking about the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which was to be the biggest spiritual experience they would encounter up to that time. He is preparing them to receive the force that would give them the go forward and launch the ministry of
“Christ-through-believers” for the rest of the earth to be saved and all they can think of is…
When are you going tho overthrow the Romans and save us from being an oppressed nation!?
But something has changed and Jesus didn’t want to be known as Jesus the carpenter, neither as Jesus the Christ, but rather as CHRIST Jesus!
He wanted them to know him as GOD the SON the CHRIST the Annointed Saviour who used to be the man Jesus! He wanted them to see Him first as Christ and then Jesus.
You see Jesus healed the sick and died for the sins of the world but it was the CHRIST who was resurrected. The anointed one and his anointing…He wanted them to forget the physical Jesus and remember the Christ the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire!
Now…There is a way of being together where we don’t know each other from a human point of view but from a spiritual point of view, where we don’t look at the physical and think oh it’s just old JJ, he’s getting all excited about nothing again.. Oh it’s just old Ps Willem preaching up a storm again…that’s just him that’s just how he likes to express himself, oh that’s just Fiona up there getting excited to get everybody else going and have a good time with each other praising etc…
Knowing us as leaders from a fleshly point of view…
Oh he just thinks he is functioning in the gifts of the spirit. It’s just to make us feel significant, those gifts are not really for todays church anymore… but it’s just Old Hennie oh he is so absent minded at times… and so we often go on knowing each other according to the flesh and not according to the spirit…
Matthew 10:40: “The person who welcomes you welcomes me, and the person who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
Matthew 10:41: The person who welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. The person who welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.
What you receive a person as is the benefit you’ll gain from that person. Our problem is we want to be familiar with everybody – know them accroding to the flesh rather than the spirit.
I cannot be a pastor to someone who doesn’t receive me as that. I can be a friend only to someone who receives me as a friend. I can be friendly to everybody I can be pastoral to anybody, but if you don’t receive me as your Pastor, I cannot be that for you! If you don’t receive Ps Willem as an Apostle he can be apostolic in his dealings with you but you will not benefit from the gift unless you receive the person as the gift! This man will help me break through in my business. I must honour him as an apostle with an anointing to break through!
Often people’s flesh makes it difficult for for us to accept the gift. As if the package containing the gift is torn and dirty and doesn’t look good. Then it’s hard to receive from such a person and that person should realise and repent and change so he doesn’t offend unnecessarily! But the flip side is also true…
Many times people look at pastors and think of them as weak because they aren’t hard working MEN with callouses on their hands etc. and they miss the gift that person has to offer for their lives…they think of themselves and they compare themselves physically to the spiritual leader…
Well let’s see, my company is bigger than his church… my salary is far bigger than his, in fact my tithe pays his salary, I’m fitter that him, stronger than him, I have more knowledge in this area so why do I have to listen to him? Knowing, accoring to the flesh and loosing out on the anointing of that person…that leader etc..
Now let’s bring it back to fellowship…think of the person next to you? How are you knowing that person? As just old Piet, and then when you talk it’s just yada yada yada…Where in fact you should be looking at Piet as Piet the son of God whom Jesus recreated and blessed and baptised with power to be a witness?
Different isn’t it?
You think you can learn something from Piet now, receive something from him?
Now when you meet with Piet, you don’t just meet with Piet you meet with Christ in Piet. When you talk to Piet you don’t just yada yada to Piet you Speak to Christ in Piet and you call Christ in Piet to become greater and Piet to become lesser so Christ can live through Piet! That’s what happens when we get together with the intent of fellowshipping together…
Of cource when we meet a new person or when we meet someone that is new in christ or on his way to christ we do it differently, we start by knowing him according to the flesh and he experiences the care and love in you through that but your intension is always to move past just knowing a person after the flesh!
So you look for opportunities to connect with that person you pray for moments where he can be saved or where he will open up and start sharing from his life… you pray that God shows you who this person really is and then you start treating him like that and you talk to him as to a king and he will leave his childish ways and become that king and you will get to know him more and more after the spirit!
That’s why we worship, pray, read from the word and challenge each other to greatness when we get together because we want to know you according to the spirit! We want to call Christ in you forward, we don’t want to just kuier with you, we want you to grow and become mature!
I Corinthians 14:26: So what does this mean, brothers and sisters? When you gather, each person has a psalm, doctrine, revelation, another language, or an interpretation. Everything must be done to help each other grow.
See fellowship is never just a braai but you can fellowship at a braai…
Acts 2:42 – Fellowship
Fellowship is something deeper than just friendship. Fellowship is God’s people getting together and sharing the life of Christ with its victories and trails. Koinonia is a unity brought about by the Holy Spirit.
If you don’t acknowlege the spirit then you will see disunity in your life! You will see how division is caused in your heart and through your life your mouth and your actions… because you don’t allow the Spirit to help you know others after the spirit, – you become critical of their flesh and you take offence because of the humanness of other people…
In Koinonia the individual shares in common an intimate bond of fellowship with the rest of believers. Koinonia cements the believers to the Lord Jesus and to each other. -Spirit Filled Bible commentry-
Let us allow the Spirit to work in us. Let’s be spiritually minded because the Holy Spirit lives in the spiritual faith realm, We must listen to his voice and not the voice of critics and we must know each other more and more according to the spirit! Know each other like God knows us see each other like God sees us and then do less yada yada but SPEAK more what the holy spirit will lead us to say to build one another up!
JJ Uys 
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