Brother David's invitation, the church's invitation to come and fellowship together and share some time around God's word. And I was talking to Brother Barry, I think it's been probably five years or so before Brother David was here that I came down and filled in one time and been a couple of other times, but wasn't necessarily able to preach those times. So I am thankful to be back with you this morning and to again, have the opportunity to look into God's word. If you'll turn with me to Acts chapter two, Acts chapter 2. I'll be reading this this morning from the Legacy Standard Bible. We're going to look at a pretty familiar text and I, you know, when Brother Dave reached out to me, if he used the term fellowship, gathering fellowship services, I didn't remember that or maybe I did subconsciously because my topic this morning is actually Christian fellowship. Christian Fellowship. Acts chapter two, we're gonna read verses 37 through 47 to get the context. I wish we could read all the way back even prior to that into Peter's sermon here on the day of Pentecost, and we'll make reference to it and actually read a few verses from the sermon, but our primary text will be from these verses at the end of chapter two. Acts chapter two, beginning in verse 37. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men, brothers, what should we do? And Peter said to them, repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. And with many other words, he silently bore witness and kept on exhorting them, saying, Be saved from this crooked generation. So then those who had received his word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3,000 souls. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling their property and possessions, and were dividing them up with all as anyone might have need. And daily devoted themselves with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved." So as I mentioned, our topic this morning is Christian fellowship. This is something we actually talk a lot about in our elders meetings at Ella Grove, fellowship within the church and with other churches. It seems to me that fellowship among God's people is not seen as valuable or as important as it should be. I think there are a few reasons for this. One is just the impact of society and culture in general. Because of technology, we are the most connected we've ever been, yet the most isolated and individualistic we've ever been. We sit in the same room with someone and text them instead of talk to them. We just don't interact with people at a deep level. The second reason is more church-related, especially in our kinds of churches. Fellowship is more about who you don't associate with, who you don't interact with, because of a variety of reasons. Many, if not most, of these so-called tests of fellowship are not based on teaching, not based on doctrine or biblical truth, but on personal preferences and convictions and even extra-biblical tradition. The third reason that I think fellowship is not held in high esteem is more general across all Christian circles, and that is fellowship has become synonymous with social activity. Meals and movie nights and get-togethers. And there's actually nothing wrong with these things, and they probably should be part of the activity of the church, but they are just a very small part of true Christian fellowship. David Mathis, a senior teacher with Desiring God Ministries, said this in an article entitled, Forgotten Habit, Fellowship as a Means of God's Grace. He said, he wrote, we nixed the name Fellowship Hall. Our church purchased the building three years ago. Fellowship Hall had been the name we inherited for the other big room. Recently, in the process of doing some renovations, we needed to formalize a name for each room. The sign now reads, Chapel. The word fellowship has fallen on hard times in many churches, like the word encourage, emptied of its power by casual overuse, trivialized, you might say. We scrap fellowship from the name, not because the biblical reality of fellowship is waning in importance, quite the contrary. We want our church to reclaim the electric reality of fellowship in the New Testament, and not have the term die the slow death of Christian domestication, unquote. So our desire this morning is to examine this text of scripture and a few other texts to help us begin reclaiming the value and importance of fellowship as a means of grace in the growth and development of God's people and through his church that will ultimately lead to him being glorified. Before we look closer at our text here in Acts chapter two, I do want to mention the role of fellowship in the Old Testament. Even though the word itself is not found in the text of the Old Testament, the idea of fellowship is everywhere. The lives of the Israelites revolved around feasts and festivals and gatherings that were ordained and instituted by Yahweh God for his chosen people. These were obviously religious gatherings designed for worship, but they didn't just sing and sacrifice together. They talked with each other, they ate together, they served together. That was the life of God's people in the nation of Israel. As we see from our text here in Acts 2, this lifestyle of fellowship among God's people continued into the early church. This was true even before the day of Pentecost. Even though the word fellowship is not found in the Gospels, the principle of fellowship is evident in the lives of Jesus and his closest followers, the first church. They walked, talked, ate, slept, served, and struggled together. So what is this togetherness that we see in the lives of the Israelites and the lives of Jesus and apostles that is now described here in Acts chapter two as fellowship? Let's first examine the word fellowship. The Greek word translated fellowship here in Acts chapter 2 verse 42 is koinonia, which speaks of fellowship, association, community, communion, participation. But the most basic understanding, just the most literal understanding of the word fellowship is sharing. Sharing with others. Sharing something with others. The sharing of things with others. Some of you may be familiar or have heard the term Koine Greek. Koine Greek is the language of the New Testament and it refers to the common Greek language that was used to record the New Testament as opposed to the classical or scholarly Greek language that would have been taught in schools. It was the, it's the everyday language of the first century here that the people that lived and wrote the New Testament that's what they spoke. It was the shared language of the common people. Koine comes from the same Greek root word as koinonia and it helps us understand the idea of the shared language koine kind of gives us some idea of what the term koinonia, fellowship, means. This Greek word koinonia is found 19 times in the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and five of those times in the LSB version that I'm using is translated share or sharing. It's literally translated share or sharing, not fellowship. Depending on the context the translators felt like share or sharing was the more valid translation and it is, that's what the word koinonia means. In other English translations it's translated contribution, communion, distribution, participation, partnership and common. Now, if you've ever listened to, heard my brother Paul preach, either in person or in sermons on Sermon Audio, you've probably heard him refer to the Hebrew word chesed. It is a word that is so broad and so deep in meaning that it takes about 10 English words to really understand what has said means. It's translated mercy, loving kindness, sovereign love, covenantal love, faithful love, and other ways it's translated. The list goes on and on. You can't really translate it with one English word. And the same is true of koinonia. It's a word that has such deep meaning that it takes multiple English words to fully understand it. Now I'm a wordsmith, my wife says I'm a word pincher. I like understanding words, I like understanding language, I'm not a Greek scholar, but I can use a lexicon, I can use a concordance, and thankfully we have those available to us today. But we can spend all day breaking down the meaning of the word, and that's important, I'm not diminishing that, but what's most important, or more important than understanding the word is practicing it. Understanding fellowship, but practicing it. Acts 2.42, which is sort of the central verse in this text, I'll read it again, and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers. So this first tells us that the church, early church, continually devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship. So this fellowship is something that required devotion. It required persistence, effort, attention, focus. It didn't just happen by happen chance. It didn't just happen. They had to work at fellowship. They had to be constantly devoted to the fellowship is what Luke records here in Acts 2.42. And also notice, and you'll notice I probably emphasized it intentionally, it's not just fellowship, it is the fellowship. This is something specific, something intentional, something special. So how do we persistently practice this specific, intentional, special fellowship, this sharing that we see among God's people in the Old Testament, that we see among Jesus and his followers in the Gospels, and we see here in the early church? How do we do that? How do we model that? Our goal this morning is to examine this text and a couple of other texts in the New Testament and with the help of the Holy Spirit, His guidance, attempt to answer two questions about true Christian fellowship, biblical New Testament fellowship. The two questions that we want to answer is what are we sharing? Sharing means, fellowship means sharing. What are we sharing and who are we sharing it with? What are we sharing and who are we sharing it with? So what do we see here in Acts 2? What did they share in Acts 2? What did they have fellowship in? What did they have the fellowship in in Acts 2? First, they shared in receiving the word. They shared in receiving the word. Faith is personal and individual. I think we all believe that. You have to come to personal saving faith, but in many ways it's also shared. I don't want to get too far off track into household faith or covenantal faith, but there is definitely a sense in which we fellowship with one another in our faith. Obviously the phrase in verse 41 where we find that saying received his word, of course his there is referring to Peter's word, but Peter's words were the words of the gospel, the words of truth that he took from the Old Testament and he was taught by Jesus. That's clearly referring to their initial receiving or accepting by faith of the gospel message that Peter had just preached in the previous text. But as verse 42 tells us, it didn't stop there. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching. So they received Peter's word, which was the word of God, and then they continued to devote themselves to share and fellowship in and around of the Apostles' teaching, the Word. This would have included the written Word. The Apostles' teaching would have included the written Word, which would have at this time been the Old Testament. We see that in Peter's sermon. He quotes the Old Testament, quotes David. But it also would have been the commandments of Christ that they had learned from Jesus and that Jesus had commissioned them in Matthew 28 to continue teaching. That's what part of the Great Commission, teach them to observe all things that I command you. That was the Apostles' teaching. using the Old Testament scriptures they had and what they learned from Jesus, that's what they were sharing in the Word and in the Apostles' teaching. This receiving of the Word by faith and this continuing to devote themselves to the Word, to the Apostles' teaching, was something they shared and had in common. It was part of their fellowship with one another. Secondly, they shared in believers' baptism. Verse 41 tells us that after receiving the word, they were baptized. Can you imagine 3,000 people being baptized at one time? These new believers shared in following the example of and obeying the command of the Lord Jesus Christ by entering the waters of baptism. They fellowship together in declaring their death to sin and self and resurrection to new life through the picture of baptism. With the exception of the Ethiopian eunuch, and correct me if I'm wrong, every other example we see of baptism in the New Testament is multiple people being baptized together. Families, 3,000 people, groups of people being baptized together. Now I'm not saying we have to always have group baptism. There's times when, a lot of times, we only baptize one person, but even if only one believer is being baptized, they share this act of faith and obedience with those in attendance. That's the purpose of baptism. It's to be, it's a witness, it's a preachman, as Tom likes to call it. We'll typically think of baptism as fellowship, But if it's not being shared with others, is it really serving as a testimony of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is what it's all about? They share it in believers' baptism. Next, we see that they share it in the breaking of bread. We actually see this mission twice, two times in the text, in verse 42 and verse 46. Why is this repeated twice? Why does Luke in the illustration of the Holy Spirit repeat this twice? It could be for emphasis. but there seems to be more to it than just emphasis. Notice verse 42, as we already read. Again, I emphasize this intentionally. He says, the breaking of bread. This is a specific act, not just generally eating together. And the context appears to be the corporate gathering of the Lord's church, what we might call the worship service. That's what we've commonly used. It's the corporate gathering of the church where we have the teaching, We have the fellowship, we have the breaking of bread, and we have the prayers, all definite things, preceded by a definite article. When do we break bread as part of the corporate gathering of the Lord's church? When we gather around the Lord's table for Lord's supper, to commune around the Lord's table, where we share together, where we fellowship together in remembrance of the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As one commentator said, even living so close to the time when Jesus was crucified, they, speaking of the church, still never wanted to forget what he did on the cross. How much more important is it for us to never forget? We fellowship, we share the breaking of bread as we gather in communion around the Lord's table, the Lord's supper. The second reference to breaking of bread is in verse 46, and I want to read that. It says, And daily devoted themselves with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. We notice that this phrase, breaking bread, is not preceded by the definite article the. And then he goes on, Luke goes on to refer to going from house to house in the breaking of bread, and then taking or eating meals or food together. This appears to be different from the breaking of bread, the Lord's Supper that we see in verse 42. It's really what we tend to think of when we think of fellowship. When we hear the word fellowship, our mind goes to getting together in the fellowship hall and eat. And again, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, because clearly that's part of what their fellowship was here in the early church in Acts 2. But, and just because we may come to understand, as we, from this text and from the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, just because we may come to understand that Christian fellowship is more than just potlucks and picnics, doesn't mean that eating together becomes less important. I wanna make sure I'm clear in that. Just because we tend to think of and limit fellowship to eating together, it is eating. Part of the fellowship is the sharing with God's people is eating together. That's clear what we see in the early church. So I don't want to diminish that. In fact, the opposite is true. If we are sharing in these other aspects of our lives as God's people, our fellowship meals will be more than just social gatherings. More than just an opportunity to stuff our faces and have casual conversation. Again, I'm not saying anything wrong with that. But if we are doing these other things, or if we're experiencing these other aspects of sharing of true Christian fellowship, then these meals together will be a continuation of the sharing of our faith, the sharing of our worship, the sharing of our lives together. I don't want us to miss something that Luke says under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit at the end of verse 46. They were taking their meals together, they were sharing, eating their food together with gladness and sincerity of heart. Sharing meals with someone, particularly if we are the one paying for the meal and preparing the food, can become burdensome, become tedious, arduous. It costs us with our money, it costs us time, it costs us effort, it requires sacrifice. It requires us to put something else aside to do that. Luke's saying here we can't just put on a good face and grin and bear it. Sometimes we may have to, but generally we shouldn't do that. We should be doing this with gladness and a serious heart. or else it will cause bitterness and frustration in our lives, and end up having the opposite effect of what Christian fellowship is designed by God to do for His people, which is bring us together, give us joy in our interaction, in our sharing our lives with one another. I think Luke, again, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, makes it clear that we need to be doing this with gladness and sincerity of heart, something that we want to do, desire to do because of our love for one another and ultimately our love for our Lord. The next thing we see is they shared in the prayers, shared in the prayers. Just as with the breaking of bread, the prayers are not just casually praying together. They are the formal corporate prayers of the gathered assembly. Coming together as the gathered body of Christ and shared prayer before the throne of God is a tremendous blessing and a tremendous responsibility, both for the one leading in prayer and those being led in prayer. When we started looking at our corporate gathering, our corporate worship, whatever you want to call it at Ella Grove, one of the things we really tried to emphasize is corporate prayer and making it very intentional because it can become just habitual. You ask the man to stand up, he prays, everybody's kind of halfway paying attention, and then you move on. And so we've intentionally tried to make that a very important and emphasized part of our service is very intentional. But again, just, you know, as happens, get distracted as our worship leader or whatever you want to call me, the one who stands up in front of everybody and kind of leads the worship part of our service, the singing and the prayers. I often find myself distracted with just logistics of the service. And instead of listening as one of my brothers takes us to our Heavenly Father in prayer, I'm thinking about other things. That's not sharing, that's not fellowship in the prayers. That's not true Christian fellowship in and around our time corporately before the throne of God. While corporate prayer is important and should be intentional, I think that's clear not just from this text but from what we see throughout God's Word, but here in this text in regards to the sharing together of prayer, the prayers, as we gather together corporately as God's people. It's important, it should be intentional, but it cannot be so formal as to become routine or ritualistic. Our corporate prayer lives should be reflective of our private prayer lives. Otherwise, we are no different than the hypocritical Pharisees that Jesus condemned for praying in public just to be seen of men. We should be praying in our prayer closets, we should be praying together in our corporate assemblies, and we should be praying together when we sit down to eat together or when we gather together for other events. Our lives should be all about fellowship, all about sharing in prayer. Next we see that they shared a reverence for the power of God. They shared a reverence for the power of God. We see that in a very, you know, simple phrase there in verse 43. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. Biblical fear is more than just terror, although God in his righteous judgment should be terrified. It is reverence for the person and power of God. Think about this, many of these who were saved at Pentecost, and we know there were some who came to Jerusalem for Pentecost, may not have been here, may have not have been there for Passover when Jesus was crucified, but many of these who were there at Pentecost and added to the church, were saved and added to the church, were the same ones who stood in rebellion and cried out in hatred for the murder of Jesus. They clearly had no fear of God at that moment when they cried crucify to the Son of God the Messiah, for the Son of God the Messiah to be crucified. When they were confronted with the truth of the risen King Jesus and the message of Peter and saw the power of God and the signs and miracles of the apostles, they feared together. That's what you see. They shared a reverence for the person in power of God. They fellowshiped in and around the person, having reverence for the person in power of God. They shared in their financial and material prosperity. They've shared in their financial and material prosperity or blessings. We see in verse 45, where it says they begin selling their property and possessions and were dividing them up with all as anyone might have need. We know that there were some unique circumstances that required the early church, particularly the church in Jerusalem at this point in time, to live in a more communal manner than we might need to today or really necessarily any other time in history, although it may be coming or may have been times in the past. But there was a different context here in this how they lived communally, what we see particularly in the early, early church in Jerusalem. So even though that's the case, even though we may not have this same communal, live in the same communal manner that they did, doesn't mean we don't have a responsibility to share in what the Lord has blessed us with. It might sound cliche, but we are blessed to be a blessing. That certainly includes spiritual blessings, but also financial and material blessings. I was telling Tom there was a rabbit trail that I was tempted to chase here, but I believe it's sufficient to say that this sharing was voluntary. It was not about taking away people's individual property rights. Luke said they sold their possessions. They didn't all become communal possessions. They sold their possessions that they still own. They made the choice voluntarily to do that. And it was for the benefit of those with legitimate needs. Just felt like that needed to be said. But ultimately, true Christian fellowship includes sharing in our financial and material prosperity. We see that here in Acts 2, and we see it continuing in the church, even throughout Acts and even into the apostolic writings. They shared their homes. We touched on this already, where it says they were breaking bread from house to house. We know they gathered in people's homes. We see that throughout the record of Acts. And this goes hand in hand with sharing meals and sharing our financial and material blessings, our financial and material resources, but it really takes it to another level. I taught a Sunday school lesson a few months back on hospitality and hospitality has some connection to fellowship, there's some differences in the word but it's really the same kind of idea of sharing our homes with others both within the church and in some cases outside the church. A church potluck in the fellowship hall is great, nothing wrong with that. Having a food pantry or a yard share or making a donation to someone in need is great, nothing wrong with that. But Christian fellowship is much more than that. It is sharing our homes and all that comes with that, including meals, time, sharing our homes with one another. They shared in worshiping and praising God. We see clearly in verse 47 where he says, praising God and having favor with all the people. But it's also implied in verse 46. They praise God, which in the context, if you read back into verse 46, as part of this whole idea of continuing context of being in one accord, being of one mind, being together in the temple. Again, just like with the communal aspect of the early church, there are some aspects of the early church, particularly the Jerusalem church, here early in Acts, that we can't directly import into the modern church. Some have tried to do that. Some just say, we need to do away with church buildings and meet house to house because that's what they did in the early church. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. But there's also, again, every place you see in the scriptures from the Old Testament into the New Testament is God established, ordained places for his people to meet. The temple, tabernacle, the temple. To some extent, the synagogues, although we know that was a corruption of that, but there's nothing wrong with having a central place for God's people to meet. So we can't import this because we see it later on in the New Testament. It's just they didn't have that opportunity in Acts chapter two. They were using what they had, which was the temple and it was homes. So we can't directly import that. They didn't have church buildings. They met at the temple in homes. And we don't really know about the structure of their services. When they had their corporate gatherings, we know they preached and taught the word. We know they sang together. We know they prayed together, as you've already seen. We don't know exactly how that looked. And I don't think we need to. Again, I'm all about trying to model the New Testament church, but there are just some aspects of it that, because of culture and context, are just going to be different. There's nothing wrong with that. Again, the effort to try to make us completely model in every way the early church, again, doing away with church buildings, meeting house to house, not having, they say, there's no pulpit. We don't see pulpits in the New Testament. We see them in the Old Testament. And a pulpit's just a way to raise up the speakers so they can be heard, particularly before we had amplification. But still, nothing wrong with pulpits. But there is an effort to do that, and I think we've taken that too far. I don't think we need to look in every single way in exactly the same order, the same manner. We need to model the early church, and we need to try to be a New Testament, have a New Testament foundation for how we carry on the Lord's work within His church. And I really don't think we need to. I don't think we need to try to model the exact way they met, the exact things they did. The point here in Acts chapter 2 from Luke, and we see throughout the New Testament, is the church, God's people, gathered often. Here they gather daily, according to, again, at least in this early stage in the development of the church, and we see them later on, references to meeting on the Lord's Day, later on in Acts, and they shared in the worship and praise of God. They worship together, they praise God together. We don't just worship in the sanctuary and fellowship in the fellowship hall. They are integrated within the shared life of God's people, within the shared life of the church. They shared in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We've already touched on this a little bit, but I want to make a little more particular reference to it. Here we see in verse 44, and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. Verse 40 tells us they believed together. We've already touched on shared faith in respect to receiving the word and following the apostles' teaching. Obviously there's some overlap in these things, just like we see in the overlap between sharing of food, sharing meals together, sharing our homes, sharing our material and financial prosperity. There's overlap there. Same thing is true. We see that there's definitely an overlap between receiving the word in faith and receiving and having the same faith as we see the believing together as described in verse 44. But I think there is a distinction. The distinction regarding shared faith is in what they believed together and or specifically who their shared faith was directed toward. In order to really see that, we need to look at what Peter said in his sermon earlier in the text. And again, we don't have time to read the entire sermon, but I want us to look at a couple of sections beginning in verse 22. where Peter says, Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man arrested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, this man, this Jesus, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. And then skipping down to verse 32, This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you both see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies as a footstool for your feet. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him, speaking of Jesus, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. They believed together, this gathering, this assembly of people that's described here in this text, they believed together, they had shared faith in the one that Peter had presented to them, the Lord Jesus Christ. Without this fellowship of faith in Christ, all of this other sharing is just social activity or even communism. True Christian fellowship is grounded and centered around a shared faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we've answered the question of what we are sharing, but what about who we are sharing it with? Verse 41 tells us, it was with those that received the word of the gospel, received Peter's word before the words of the gospel, the proclamation of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were then baptized and they were added. Again, in the particular version I'm reading, that's what all it says. They were added there and added about 3,000 souls. What were they added to? When you add something, you have to have something there before to add to it. Some translations say added unto them. That's what the King James says. I think another, maybe the NIV says added to their number. If you go back to Acts 1, what they added to was this gathering, this assembly of Christ's followers. That's what we see starting in Acts chapter 1, when Christ ascended, he had a group of his apostles and his followers that were gathered with him, and then that gathering, that same group of people we see continue now, they're gathered again in this upper room on Pentecost, and we see the Holy Spirit come upon them and all that happens there earlier in Acts chapter 2. So it's this, the ones added to here in Acts 2 were added to this gathering, this assembly of Christ's followers. Jesus referred to this gathering of his people, his followers, as the ecclesia, or church, back in Matthew 16 and Matthew 18. Those are the first times we see, and the only time we see the word church or ecclesia appear in the Gospels. And then he commissioned this same group this ecclesia, this gathering, this assembly, in Matthew 28, in Acts 1, to be his kingdom workers here on earth. If you move forward from chapter 2 through chapters 3 and 4 and 5 of Acts, you continue to see this description of a group, a gathering, an assembly of people in fellowship together, sharing their lives together, and then in Acts 5.11, we again see them being referred to as the church, the ecclesia, the assembly. So based on this, We can say with pretty good confidence that the sharing in Acts 2 was with the Lord's church. His ecclesy, His gathering, His assembly. His assembly of baptized believers. Our primary fellowship, primary fellowship, or sharing, because all fellowship means sharing together, is at least on earth with members of the Lord's Church, the local church, the ecclesia, the assembly, the gathering. That is our primary fellowship, our primary sharing is with that local gathering. I know we've already covered a lot of ground, but I want us to look at a couple other passages to get a little more insight into Christian fellowship. I want you to turn with me to Romans chapter 15, Romans 15. We're going to pick up in verse 22. Romans 15, 22. There's some background here we don't have time to get into, but Paul writing says, for this reason I've often been prevented from coming to you, but now with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you, whenever I go to Spain, for I hope passing through to see you and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while, but now I am going to Jerusalem to serve the saints. Paul's telling the Roman church that he wants to come visit them, but first he's got to go to Jerusalem, and he's going there for a very specific reason. And we see that in verse 26. For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to share, were to share their estelliship, monenea, same Greek word, with the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they were indebted to them, for the Gentiles have shared in their a little bit different variation, but same basic Greek word, shared. They have fellowshiped in their spiritual things. They are indebted to administer to them also material things. Therefore, when I've completed this, when I've completed this journey to Jerusalem to deliver, to take whatever this sharing is, and I put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I will go on my way of you to Spain. He's going to Spain, and then to Rome is his plan. And I know that when I come to you, I'll come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. So here we have this description, again, that is described in verse 20 of this, something that Paul was taking to Jerusalem to share in fellowship with, from the Macedonian and Achaian churches to the poor in the Jerusalem church. Paul sheds some additional light on this sharing, this fellowship in 2 Corinthians where he describes in several places how the churches in Macedonia abounded in generosity and they gave beyond their ability for the grace of sharing, fellowshipping in the ministry of the saints. That's how he describes it in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. He then goes on to encourage the Corinthian church to show proof of their love by cheerfully giving as the churches in Macedonia and Chaia had done. So there's the same, talking about the same thing in Romans 15 and Acts, excuse me, 2 Corinthians 8 and also chapter 15. He then concludes the letter again at the end of 2 Corinthians by saying that God would be glorified by the Corinthian church's obedience to the gospel of Christ and the generosity of their fellowship, their sharing toward others. Taking, again, all these things into account, it seems that the sharing was a love offering from the churches of Macedonia, Achaia, and possibly Corinth, if they followed the instruction of Paul, that was then taken or given to those in need, the poor, in the Jerusalem church. They fellowshiped with them by sharing of their material and financial blessing. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 8 that the Estonian saints gave beyond their ability, not just in their abundance, but even beyond that. So that answers the question also of who did they share with. They shared their financial and material blessings. They're beyond even their means in some cases with the saints in Jerusalem, another church, the Jerusalem church. This tells us that we should have fellowship with other churches specifically in sharing our financial and material blessings. But there's another sharing that we can't miss in Romans 15. It's found in verse 27. You're still there. Paul wrote this, yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them, for if the Gentiles have shared, speaking of the Macedonian and Achaian churches, the Macedonian and Achaian Christians, if they have shared in their spiritual things, and the there there is referring to the Jewish Christians in the Jerusalem church, their spiritual blessings, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things, spiritual things and material things. Again, this is telling us that the churches in Macedonia and Kea were pleased to share in their material things with the Jerusalem church because the Gentiles, them being Gentiles, had shared, had fellowship in the Jerusalem church, the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, their spiritual things. What's he talking about there? What's the spiritual things that he had in mind there? It would have to be the sharing in the truth of the gospel. How did the gospel come to these Gentile Christians? It came through Paul, who was sent by the church in Antioch, which ultimately came from the church in Jerusalem. That's clearly the reference. As promised by God to Abraham, the Jewish people would be a blessing to the rest of the world through the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the spiritual things that they were indebted to repay through the material blessing. So this tells us that the foundation of fellowship, as we've already seen both within the Lord's church and between the Lord's churches, is sharing in the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, sharing in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't think it would take too far of a leap then to say if we are called to share, to fellowship in our faith and to share and fellowship in our material and financial blessings, I think it wouldn't be too hard for us to say that we should also share in the other things that we see in Acts 2. I don't think there's too far of a leap to that. Fellowship with other churches is not based on what Bible translation we use. or what kind of songs we sing, or how many elders we have. It's based in shared faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, shared fidelity to the word of God, and shared love and concern for the people of God. That is Christian fellowship. The last thing I want us to see is that Christian fellowship is really a means of grace to a greater fellowship, which is where we began. There are several places we can look to to see how the writers of Scripture, from Paul to John to the writer of Hebrews, and ultimately the Holy Spirit, connect our fellowship with one another, with other believers, to our fellowship with the triune God. Just after encouraging the Corinth church to strive for restoration, to encourage one another, to be of one mind, all terms that are synonymous with fellowship, or at least have some connection to fellowship, after encouraging the Corinth church to do those things, Paul says this, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. In his letter to Philemon in regards to how he should deal with Onesimus, Paul prayed that Philemon's partnership or fellowship, his sharing with him in the faith, would deepen his understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. John wrote in the opening of his first epistle that what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also that you may also have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Fellowship with one another is a means of grace, it's a means of bringing us into greater and closer fellowship with God and all of his persons. That's the ultimate purpose of fellowship is so that ultimately we grow in our fellowship with the Lord with God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. I want to conclude by once again quoting from the article I read earlier, The Forgotten Habit. Christian fellowship, our holy commonality of sharing in one's savor through one's spirit as one body, goes far deeper than games in a potluck. In the New Testament, fellowship is less the Christian Super Bowl party and more like the players themselves huddled on the field calling the next play. New Testament fellowship is far deeper than common human friendships. Fellowship, at its best, is comprised of deeply committed relationships that is covenant allegiance through thick and thin, through pain and inconvenience, and awkwardness and annoyance. This has long been a challenge for Americans who, when they rally together, have done so in defense of individual rights, liberties, and our personal pursuits of happiness. I didn't have this in my notes, and I wasn't sure if I was gonna say it, but what he says, the quote he gives here about our allegiance through pain and inconvenience, I can't help but do this. There's another aspect of fellowship that we don't necessarily see in Acts chapter two, but we see it after that everywhere in Acts and even into the apostles, and that is we, as God's people, we share in our sufferings. We share in our sufferings. Think about when Peter and John were arrested, just a couple chapters over from Acts chapter 2, they were arrested for preaching the gospel. What do we see? We see God's people gathered, praying, sharing in the sufferings of Peter and John as they were being persecuted for preaching the gospel. And it doesn't end there. I mean, again, it's everywhere. It's all over. And Paul actually said that we fellowship with Christ in his sufferings, in his troubles. So there's a connection again. It goes back to that our fellowship helping us grow in greater fellowship, but that's true in our fellowship with one another in our struggles. That is very much part of the fellowship of God's people within his church and even with other churches. Sorry, I had to throw that in there. That's a freebie. In the Christian life, continuing the quote, in the Christian life, every day matters and every Sunday matters with its rhythms of fellowship, keeping ourselves and others in the faith does not call for Herculean efforts, but regular upkeep. Routine vigilance, watching out for the souls of others, leads to losing less of the sum and to all the more grace as we anticipate the day of Christ's return drawing near. Fellowship as an irreplaceable means of grace in the Christian life offers us two priceless joys, receiving God's grace through the helping words of others and giving his grace to others through all. Jesus does not call us to hold fast alone, as if we didn't need the fellows he gives, but we help each other hold fast and thrive. Whether fellowship is the namesake of a room at our church, we will do well to reclaim this reality as a vital means of God's ongoing grace, and perhaps all the more after the trials of recent years." Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to look into your word. We thank you that you have so blessed us, that you've been so good and merciful and gracious to us as to give us the gift of fellowship, the means of grace, of sharing our lives with one another, sharing our lives with the body of Christ that you've placed us in, the assembly you've placed us in, also our lives, and all that comes with that, with even those in other churches, such as the church that we are gathered with here today. Ultimately, thank you that that fellowship, that sharing is focused on, centered on our faith and our God-given faith in your son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice for us, his resurrection that gives us victory over death, his ongoing intercession for us, and as we look forward to that time when he will return to bring us all together into fellowship. We pray that our fellowship together, our sharing together would be as close as possible to a picture of what we will experience in eternity. You've given us that blessing through your Holy Spirit, by your word, that we can look into your word and see that this morning. May our desire be to fellowship, to have true Christian fellowship, true sharing with one another, as your word shows us. And ultimately, that fellowship would draw us closer to you. We would be in greater fellowship with you as our God. We praise these in Jesus' name, amen.