FELLOWSHIP
Michael J Klassen
Philippians 3: 10
Acts 2: 42 (to “apostles”)
Philippians 2: 1, 2
1 Corinthians 1: 9, 10
I would like to start with a question: there is a man in Scripture who is spoken of as having a withered hand: without looking, how many know which hand was withered? I will tell you later.
We have read four references to fellowship; I do not by any means intend to go into all four of these in depth. Where we began in Philippians we have, “the fellowship of his sufferings”. When it comes to these four views of fellowship, and there may be others - I am not limiting Scripture in relation to fellowship - and it says, “the fellowship of …”, I take that to mean it is the character of the fellowship. The thought of “the fellowship of his sufferings” involves the flesh being completely removed. The more attached you are to the world the more suffering there will be in relation to taking up the fellowship of His sufferings. There is the thought of suffering for Him. I think we all know, every believer knows, something of the thought of suffering for Christ, and that is precious.
It is another matter to be in the fellowship; that is, suffering with Him. Every Christian suffers for the Lord in some sense; but suffering with Him is the greater thing – “the fellowship of His sufferings”, JT vol 17 p63. As to the fellowship of suffering with Him, that is the fellowship which we are brought into, the character of the sufferings of the Person of Christ Himself. Mr Raven said that ’Fellowship of his sufferings is the sense of being identified with what is being rejected by the world’, FER vol 4 p85. We are not speaking of the atoning sufferings of Christ; we could not enter into that, but we ought to have some measure of apprehension of the sufferings of Christ in relation to what sin is to God, as we see suffering about us in every place; we see it in creation, and how creation itself groans. We see it in relation to the Person of Christ and what was set before Him in Gethsemane and what was brought before Him as to the awfulness of sin. We cannot enter into it in the measure that Christ can, but it would affect our affections that we think about these sufferings, so that “the fellowship of his sufferings” involves “being conformed to his death”. Our flesh must go. I was touched in the reading we have just had that in Romans 8 Paul says, “but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live”, v 13. That is what “the fellowship of his sufferings” involves. The flesh and all that this world is must go. The flesh will make a complete wreck of anything that is for God: it and all it is attached to must go. He has died to this world; we too should be marked by this. “Our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, so that he should deliver us out of the present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father”, Gal. 1: 3, 4
In Acts 2, we have the “fellowship of the apostles”. God has graciously opened up something that takes this character: this “fellowship of the apostles” takes character from the teachings of the apostles. I would not leave any apostle out, but I would touch just on three: one is Peter. In the first preaching of Peter “there were added in that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2: 41), saved through the teaching of one apostle “with the eleven”, v 14. If I understand it correctly, there was not one person under the hearing of that preaching that did not accept Christ: “all that believed were together”, v 44. What power there is in the “fellowship of the apostles”. The Lord says, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets”, Luke 16: 31. I would not leave out the prophets in relation to what there is as leading up to what comes in in the apostles.
The apostle John gives us a teaching and a ministry that is in relation to love. The depth of love that John expresses is beyond what we can maybe take in. It says, and I think we can all say it, “That disciple therefore whom Jesus loved”, John 21: 7. That was John’s description of himself, and he brings in love very prominently throughout his epistles and throughout his gospel. This touches very squarely on what we are speaking of in 1 John 1: 3: “that which we have seen and heard we report to you, that ye also may have fellowship with us”; that is, with the apostles. That is what they are seeking to bring us into, the fellowship that the apostles enjoyed in Christ Jesus. He goes on to say, “But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another”, 1 John 1: 7. The fellowship is not necessarily firstly for us: the fellowship is for God and for His Son. It took me a while to get a hold of that; I do not know that I have the full gain of such a wonderful statement, but you think of what there is for God even in this room. I look around this room and I think of what God said in relation to Israel: “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen wrong in Israel”, Num 23: 21. I wonder how many of us could look at Jacob that way. That is what we are as saints by calling before God because everything now stands in One who stands in perfection before a righteous and a holy God; we stand in Christ Jesus.
We see in Paul, “apostle of Jesus Christ by God’s will” (Eph. 1: 1), one who opens up the mystery, which has a secret side to it. It is only revealed to the believer as having the Holy Spirit. (The anti-type would be seen in Joseph as the revealer of secrets). Paul brings us into a land that flows with milk and honey, which is what is found substantially in the saints. The milk is a true result of chewing the cud or digesting the word of God for the edification of the saints. The honey speaks of fellowship, that which is produced by the working things out together. (This is all based on the testimony to the crucified and exalted Christ.) Paul gives us a testimony in relation to the One who was crucified but “is sitting at the right hand of God” (Col 3: 1), the testimony of all the apostles - John, Mark, Mathew, Peter and Luke. (Paul could say, “For I have received from the Lord” (1 Cor 11: 23), and again “round about him a light out of heaven” (Acts 9: 3): right from the very beginning of his Christian experience Paul was receiving light out of heaven, fitting him to express so much in relation to the mystery, and opening up the preciousness of the assembly to Christ.) Have we laid hold of such precious teaching and come in testimonially and experimentally to that which belongs to Jesus Christ our Lord? What a fellowship!
In Philippians 2, it says, “If then there be any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit”. The Spirit brings us to this “fellowship of the Spirit”, the Spirit characterises the fellowship in a way that brings in power, power to be able to operate in a fellowship that is for God; for His heart and for the heart of Christ. Paul says four things here: “if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and compassions, fulfil my joy”. Mr James Taylor suggested that what follows is a consequence to these four things: “that ye may think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking one thing”, JT vol 40 p221. He said that the Spirit of God operates in the house of God, vol 20 p331. What a matter that is, and He operates in our souls too. Each believer is indwelt by the power of the Spirit of God. He operates in the house of God or ‘house-wise’ because fellowship involves a collective setting. What an area that we can be attached to, in thinking of the Spirit of God operating in an area where there is power where we can answer to the affections of Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 1, it says, “by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”. I think this is linked to sonship and draws out our hearts in a very special way. It embraces every believer as having accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour and having the Spirit. This was a difficult area in Corinth where this is mentioned, but God was not looking at their state: He looked above their actual state to the source of their life and hope; as JND says: before he touches upon their evil, he can speak to them of their being "confirmed unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ"; Collected Writings vol 5 p326. He was looking at the One who held them in perfection. Paul says after that, “Now I exhort you brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all say the same thing, and that there be not among you divisions; but that ye may be perfectly united in the same mind and in the same opinion”.
If you look back over these four aspects, these four characters of fellowship, you will find something in common and it is oneness. In 1 Corinthians 1: 10 we get “say the same thing … perfectly united. same mind…”; in Acts 2, they “had all things common” (v 44); in Philippians 2, it is “think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking one thing”; in Philippians 3, “let us be thus minded”, v 15. God is one and God delights to bring us, every one, into the perfection of that which He has in His Son in which we are all one in Him. This must be present in order that true unity is found in evidence among the saints; so these four characters of fellowship are imperative in order for us to move forward in the fellowship of God’s Son.
I turn to Galatians 2: 8: “(for he that wrought in Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision wrought also in me towards the Gentiles), and recognising the grace given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were conspicuous as being pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go to the nations, and they to the circumcision; only that we should remember the poor, which same thing also I was diligent to do”. As I mentioned, when we get this thought “of”: it gives the character. We have seen what the fellowship takes on in character, in these four aspects of the fellowship; now we see “the right hands”, the collective sense: “the right hands” take on the character of “the fellowship”.
I want to turn to Luke 6: 6-11: “And it came to pass on another sabbath also that he entered into the synagogue and taught; and there was a man there, and his right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees were watching if he would heal on the sabbath, that they might find something of which to accuse him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, Get up, and stand in the midst. And having risen up he stood there. Jesus therefore said to them, I will ask you if it is lawful on the sabbath to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? And having looked around on them all, he said to him, Stretch out thy hand. And he did so and his hand was restored as the other. But they were filled with madness, and they spoke together among themselves what they should do to Jesus”. I mention this as a solemn warning linked to what Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 1 as to divisions, as to disunity. It is interesting that it was this man’s right hand that was withered. How many of us often have a withered right hand? It is a solemn thing to have a withered right hand that you cannot take and stretch out to those of “like precious faith”, 2 Peter 1: 1. There is an answer to that withered hand and it is Christ. He says to the man, “Stretch out thy hand”. James and Cephas and John saw something in Paul and Barnabas that was very precious and it was what was of Christ. The only way that the withered hand can be stretched out is if we come under the direction and the power of what there is in the “fellowship of his sufferings”, in the “fellowship of the apostles”, in the “fellowship of the Spirit”, and in the “fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”. We come under authority and under the Lordship of what is represented in these four aspects of fellowship.
The highest expression that we will ever have in fellowship is to be at the Lord’s supper with those of “like precious faith”. We are in fellowship with those of “like precious faith” universally, and it behoves me to be one who has come before Christ that my hand might not be withered, that I might be able to stretch out my hand and be among those who are giving “the right hands of fellowship”, extending it to those who have come under the direction in these four characters of fellowship. It searches my own soul to find whether I have come under the direction, the character of those four things. If, by the power of the Spirit of God, as we come together tomorrow, if the Lord leaves us here, we would come together in that spirit, not having a withered hand, so that there might be some special character that would mark every one of us after the service of God. If it does not, you will be marked by what it says at the end of that passage where the Lord had healed that man: you will be marked by “madness”. What a horrible thing to be marked by. It comes to the people of God; it is a character of Balak; he sought to curse the people of God through Balaam, “now come, I pray thee, curse me this people.” Num 22: 6. What a people we have to do with: Peter could speak of them as a people for a possession, those who are holy to God. How it behoves me to be under the direction of that blessed One, who desires to make my hand whole, so that I might be able to be among the number of those who can stretch out the “right hands of fellowship”.
May it be so for His Name’s sake.
Calgary
6th July 2019