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2 Timothy 1:3-4
As I think Brother Quatro mentioned this morning, when we first started doing... we switched from just teaching on Sunday night to preaching on Sunday night, one of our goals was to have everybody out at 7 o 'clock.
So, as he said this morning, that's my goal, is to have you out at 7 o 'clock. I actually hope to be out by 6 o 'clock. I think we'll make that. If you have your Bibles tonight, turn to 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1.
We're going to begin in verse 1. And when you have found it, if you would please stand as we reverence the reading of God's Word. 2 Timothy 1, beginning in verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with a clear conscience as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy.
Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Father, once again, we do thank You that we can freely gather on a Sunday night and worship You. Father, as many things that are wrong with our country as godless of a society, as a wicked culture that is around us, we thank You, Father, that we live in a country where we can gather freely without worry or without fear and worship You together as a body.
I pray tonight, Lord, as we have heard the songs, as we have prayed, we pray that it would be pleasing to You. We pray that as I begin to preach that it would be pleasing to You, Father, that You would give me holy unction, Father, that I would preach Your Word truly and rightly, that I would preach with boldness, with humility, and with love.
I pray, Father, that Your Word would not return void as we look at this Scripture and we see the love that Paul had for his brother in Christ, Timothy. Father, we would desire such a love for one another.
We ask all these things in Christ's name.
Amen.
This evening from our text, I want to preach on the topic of Christian fellowship. And our text will come from verses 3 and 4. And we're going to talk about fellowship. The Greek word which is translated into fellowship is koinonia.
Koinonia. It is used 20 times in the New Testament. A few examples of its use. Acts 2 .42 says,. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, koinonia, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
1 John 1 .6 -7. If we say that we have koinonia, if we say that we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship, there's that word again, with one another in the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Philippians 2 .1 -2. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation, which in the King James and the LSB, they both translate that to fellowship, it's the same word, koinonia, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
So this word koinonia, which is translated into English as fellowship or in some places, participation. The meaning of it is the share which one has in anything or participation, partnership to the mutual benefit of those involved, shared community that involves deep, close-knit participation among its people.
That is fellowship as seen in the Bible in the various ways that it is used. But what do we mean when we say Christian fellowship? Christian fellowship, a shared community that involves deep, close-knit participation among its people.
What is it that we share as Christians? It's in the name. Christians, what is it that we share? We share Christ. We share Christ. He is the focus, or for this sermon, we will see Him as the subject of the fellowship.
Christ is the subject of Christian fellowship. Christian fellowship has fell by the wayside in many places and churches of today. It is something that over the last few years I've really struggled to understand in regards to how significant Christian fellowship is.
And I hope after tonight, we will be able to see how significant Christian fellowship really is. I think to an extent, it's something that we may all at times struggle with grasping what Christian fellowship is.
Satan hates Christian fellowship. He hates Christian fellowship. The world, we talk about the world hates worship, but the world also hates Christian fellowship. Attacks on Christian fellowship have come from less obvious places that we will discuss later on, but one author writes that Christian fellowship should be seen as a means of grace.
Rightly so, God's Word and prayer are emphasized as means of grace and should be emphasized above all others. But as this author writes, Christian fellowship is often like the forgotten middle child. While it is not of the same importance as the Word or prayer, Christian fellowship is extremely important in the life of the believer.
And Paul understood that. In our text, we will see that Paul understood the importance of Christian fellowship. Once again, I want to remind you that 2 Timothy was written in the context of suffering.
Paul was suffering mightily for the sake of the Gospel. Paul was imprisoned and he was longing for Christian fellowship as he opens this letter to Timothy. And so there's four elements of Christian fellowship that I see in our text in verses 3 and 4.
And these four, though, flow from the heart and the subject of Christian fellowship, which is Christ. He is the focus. These four are centered upon and drawn from that focus. So the first one as we read this, I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with a clear conscience as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.
So the first key element that I want our attention to be drawn to is thanks. The thanks that is given. The thanks of Christ is the subject of the fellowship. Thanks is the sentiment of the fellowship.
Who's he thanking? Thanks, I thank God. Thanks be to God. God is the source of the fellowship. So you have the subject of the fellowship, which is Christ. The source of the fellowship, which is God. And now we're going to talk about the sentiment of the fellowship.
Thanks be to God. The God, he says, I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors. So he's saying thank you. He's thanking the God of his ancestors. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yahweh, the one true and living God.
This is who he offered thanks to. Paul knows, as James knew, all blessings come from God. James 1, 16 -18, Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. It is a gift. Paul knew that all blessings come from God. While Paul was thankful for Timothy and his Christian friendship with him, Paul knew that it was produced by God.
He knew that the friendship and the fellowship that he had with Timothy was not brought on by himself or Timothy. It was a gift from God. Timothy himself was a gift from God for Paul. The fellowship he had with Timothy was a gift from God.
Thank God for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank God for one another, for they were given by God. They are a gift, and he is the giver of that gift. The fellowship that you experience with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Is a gift.
It is a gift to be thankful for Christian fellowship is grounded in gratitude to God. Christian fellowship is for the glory of God. So what was he thanking Him for? He said, I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with a clear conscience as I remember you.
We'll get into the rest in just a minute, but he was thanking God for Timothy. As Christians, we should express appreciation and love for our fellow believers. Thankfulness for one another and what each member brings to the body.
We're all gifted differently. We're all gifted in different ways, but we should be thankful for each one. We should be thankful for each member. We share a common faith. We share a common faith. Paul served God as did his ancestors and Timothy shared that faith with Paul.
That faith is what unites us. Our faith in Christ unites us as a body. We are united by the Gospel of Christ. All saved by His sacrificial death and justified by His supernatural resurrection. United in Him.
We may come from all different backgrounds. We may come from all different walks of life. Some of us even came from Canada. But we are united in Christ. We are united in Christ. We should be thankful to God for one another.
When you look around and see one another, when you see one another on a Sunday morning, when you see one another on a Sunday night or a Wednesday night, thank God for one another. Don't see one another as a burden, but rather as a gift.
Thanks be to God. The sentiment of the fellowship. I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with a clear conscience as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. So the second element that we see in this text of Christian fellowship is prayer.
Prayer is the sustenance of the fellowship. It says, I pray, I remember you constantly in my prayers. Prayer without ceasing. Prayer for your fellow Christians. The prayer that we have for one another contributes to the spiritual well-being of the one receiving prayer, but also the one praying to intercede for one another.
Paul did this multiple times and gives us great examples. This wasn't just something that he did for Timothy. Go ahead and turn to Ephesians. I think of two different prayers that Paul prays in Ephesians, and I want to briefly look at both of these.
We don't have time to completely exegete either of these, but we can get the gist of both. Ephesians 1. I want you to really pay close attention to these prayers that Paul is praying and what he is praying for these believers.
Ephesians 1, beginning in v. 15,. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
You see those, again, those same two things. He said, I thank God for Timothy. He thanks God for these Ephesian believers. Remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you. What are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly places.
Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that is named, in not only this age, but also the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is the body, the fullness of Him who fills all and all.
What great care for the souls of the Ephesians did Paul have. When you read these things, he not only thanks God for them, but he asks that God would give them in the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope which He has called you.
And then in Ephesians 3, beginning in v. 14, Paul says, for this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory, He may grant you to be strengthened with the power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, and that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than we can ask or think according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen.
What love for fellow believers. What love Paul had for these Ephesian believers. What love Paul had for Timothy. This love was not something that Paul just conjured up within himself for these Ephesian believers or for Timothy.
This love is a gift from God. And prayer for one another is God's design. It is His design that we pray for one another. This is quite possibly the most important part of Christian fellowship among believers.
For when we intercede for one another in prayer, it can become a means for change in their lives by the power of God enabling them to turn from sin, withstand trials, overcome challenges, and experience God's abundant grace.
When we pray for one another, Satan hates Christian fellowship and he hates our prayer for one another. He will do anything he can to distract us from praying for one another. As your pastor, one of your pastors, he will do anything he can to distract me from praying for you all.
But it's so important. He will try to distract us. Why? Because our prayer for one another promotes unity in the body. And it unites us even more in Christ. It strengthens our bonds and our relationships with one another.
It is a reminder to us that we are not in the faith alone. Paul says, I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. It wasn't just an ever so often. When I think about it, when I get around to it, when I get time, Timothy, I pray for you.
Timothy, when I've got nothing else to do, you know, all my hobbies, everything that I want to do, I've already done that. I'm just sitting around by myself. Then I pray for you. No, he says, I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.
Paul prayed for Timothy all the time. How often do we pray for one another? How often do you pray for one another? Is there a greater way to care for one another than in prayer? I feel like just about anybody in this room, if another person in this room had a physical need, or if one of us was broke down, down the road, I feel like anybody in this room would drop everything and run to help them.
And I praise God for that. And we should be willing to do that for one another. But if we are, and rightly so, willing to do that for a physical need, for a fellow believer, how much more should we care about the caring for the soul of one another through prayer?
That should be chief. I'm not saying, okay, now, I just gotta pray for you. I don't actually have to go out, help you. No, that's not what I'm saying. Help one another. Pray for one another. Care about the soul of one another enough to take them to the Lord in prayer.
Through continual prayer for this night and day, for this continual, through this continual prayer for one another, we express our genuine concern for the well-being of other believers. We rejoice in their victories.
We stand with them in times of hardship. This prayer for one another grows the love that we have for one another and manifests itself in wanting to be around each other. Wanting to be near one another.
Wanting to converse with one another. We truly desire to be in the presence of one another. Paul says, I thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with a clear conscience. As I remember you constantly, my prayers night and day, as I remember your tears,.
I long to see you.
He wanted to see Timothy. He wanted to see him face to face. And that prayer for one another, as that love grows, we desire to see one another. And this is the support or the society of Christian fellowship.
Not just praying for one another from afar off as we should, but longing to be with one another. Face to face, Paul desired to see Timothy. Not from afar off. He could write letter after letter to Timothy.
He could pray for him and he did. But he also wanted to see Timothy. This highlights the importance for Paul in gathering together. Something we should see as important today as well. You know, while I thank God for the various means of communication that we have, such as phone call, a text message, a Zoom call, I thank God for those things.
But none of these can come close to meeting together as a body. Being in each other's presence. One of the biggest attacks on Christian fellowship has been online church. Zoom church. While this can be a great tool for the church, especially those that are providentially hindered.
There are so many people who would love to be here that can't for various reasons. And so I'm thankful that we have live stream. So those that can't be here can join us even from afar. And so I thank God for that.
But online church, especially for those who can be here, does not replace church. Just the same, there is no online counterpart that replaces face to face fellowship. Ask anybody who can't be here for health reasons.
I'm gonna go out on a limb, but if you were to ask any that can't be here for health reasons, they will tell you that they miss gathering with the saints. They miss the fellowship. They miss seeing one another.
Technology, though it has many benefits, has hindered Christian fellowship in a lot of ways. You know, COVID, thank goodness that's past tense in most senses, but COVID exposed our need for Christian fellowship and how it had been lacking in many ways.
The isolation that came with COVID in the lives of many believers showed just how much we depend on Christian fellowship with one another. Showed how many churches had for many years had an unbiblical view and model of Christian fellowship.
See each other once or twice a week. Maybe have, maybe eat at church once a month and call it fellowship. And then, you know, maybe talk about the ball game, talk about hunting or fishing. Before and after service, then move on with your lives separately until the next Wednesday or Sunday.
No fellowship in between, no talking, no keeping up with one another. I'll see you Wednesday. I'll see you Sunday. No study together. No prayer together or for one another. No confessing of sins to one another.
No encouraging one another. No accountability to one another. And whether we admit it or not, this stemmed from a view that we really didn't need one another. We really didn't need one another. We knew we needed Christ.
We needed God the Father. We needed the Holy Spirit, but we really didn't need one another more than just the things that pertain to worship service or the workings of the church. But I praise God for something like COVID, as horrible as that whole mess was, that He has brought many to see our need for one another.
That we need one another. That we need to spend time together. Because when we spend time together, growth happens. We grow. We can do, I'm gonna list a few things, but we can do the following things for one another face to face in a way that we can never do when we are apart.
The first one is encourage one another. Turn to Hebrews chapter three. When we are together, we can encourage one another. Hebrews chapter three, beginning in verse 12. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God.
But exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, for we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
So according to this Scripture, what are the means to verse 14's holding our confidence firm to the end, or rather to persevere? I do want to first note, we have come to share in Christ if we hold our confidence to the end.
We are not sharing nor have ever truly shared in Christ if we do not persevere in the faith until the end. The perseverance is an evidence of true conversion. So viewing Christian fellowship, I don't know, at the beginning of service, I think I mentioned viewing Christian fellowship as a means of grace.
Our exhorting of one another daily is a God-given means for helping your brother or sister to hold fast to Christ. As they do the same for you. We take care to make sure that one of us doesn't have an evil, unbelieving heart that would lead us to fall away from God.
How?
By exhorting one another. How often does it say to exhort one another? Every day as long as it is called today.
Why? Why?
That none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Christian fellowship is serious. Christian fellowship is not just something that we think, oh, well, some churches need Christian fellowship.
Some Christians need Christian fellowship. I don't really need Christian fellowship. That's a lie. You do need Christian fellowship. We all need Christian fellowship. We have a great responsibility to one another.
That's more than just, hey, how you doing? I'll see you Wednesday. We have a greater responsibility to one another. Brothers and sisters in Christ, by the design and the power of God, play a role in the hearts of their fellow brothers and sisters not hardening.
This exhorting and encouraging happens when we meet together. I'm not saying that this doesn't or can't happen through text or call, but primarily through face-to-face interaction. Hebrews 10, 24 -25, you don't have to turn there.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, all the more as you see the day drawing near.
We cannot neglect meeting together in regularly scheduled services like this one and outside of these regularly scheduled services. This exhorting of one another is not always, though I do want us to, when we hear encourage, sometimes we think of the world's view of encouragement.
You know, you can do it. And that is part of it. But this encouraging of one another is not always in the way of encouragement as defined by the world. Sometimes it comes in the form of chastening and love.
Sometimes it comes with a reminder. Brother, sister, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Sometimes encouragement, exhorting, is reminding a fellow believer of that truth, a reminder that Christ is better than the world.
Brother, sister, Christ is better than the world. That is encouragement. That is exhorting one another. Don't chase the world. Christ is better. A reminder to your brother and sister in Christ that eternal punishment awaits those who choose the world.
Sometimes it comes in a challenging way, but we must do that for one another. We must at times challenge one another. Proverbs 27, 17, iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens another. One means by which the Holy Spirit produces sanctification is through Christian fellowship.
That includes praying for one another and spending time with one another. We help to provide accountability. This common faith stimulates our growth. You know, being a part of this church, I'm just going to be honest as far as with me, being a part of this church has helped me with family worship.
It's helped me to desire to do family worship more often. There are brothers in this church who have talked to me and have said things that have encouraged me to walk closer to Christ, to lead my family better.
Being a part of this church, these brothers that we have here hold me accountable in a gracious way. It could be from questions like these. Where are you in your Bible reading? What have you been reading lately?
How often do you gather in family worship? How is family worship going on at home? Or it could even be, brother, you are in sin. That is not popular or common today in churches, but praise God for a brotherly love like that.
A brotherly love, a sisterly love, a Christian love that says I care more about your soul and eternity than I do about your feelings. Challenge one another. Hold one another accountable, but don't forget, show one another grace as God has shown us grace.
Love one another. Encourage one another. Exhort one another. Study the Word together. You cannot measure the importance of studying the Word together as believers. Not only do we learn right doctrine together, but we also learn what wrong and unbiblical doctrine looks like.
We help one another avoid doctrinal errors when we study the Word together. Can you ever talk about things that are not necessarily about the faith? Can we ever talk about sports or work or hobbies? Yes, you can.
And you should talk about these things with your brothers and sisters in Christ. I definitely wouldn't prescribe you have different sets of friends for different conversations. But we must see Christian fellowship that goes beyond friendship.
It can be viewed as a group of soldiers going into battle. David Mathis writes in the New Testament, fellowship is less the Christian Super Bowl party and more like the players themselves huddled in the field calling the next play.
More than a friendship. We are covenantally linked to one another. We are linked by the blood of Christ. And we form intentional relationships. How do you view the church? How do you view the church? How do you view the body of believers that you're a part of?
This group. How do you view one another? How do you view each other's acquaintances?
Friends?
This is meant to be a family with the strongest bond. That bond is Christ. To love and bear one another in Christ. Some may say it is to choose to love one another in any circumstances, and while I agree to an extent with the choosing to love one another, our love for one another is so much more than a human choice.
It is a genuine love for one another rooted in the love of Christ for His church. The love that we have been shown by Christ overflows within us and produces a supernatural love for one another. John Popper defines Christian fellowship like this, the mutual bond, and I think mutual would be the adjective form of koinonia in English that Christians have with Christ that unites us in a profound and eternal relationship of love that should express itself in joyful and affectionate service for each other's good.
What great joy this produces in the life of a believer when we have that kind of community with each other. When we desire to see one another as Paul desired to see Timothy. And he said, that I long to see you that I might be filled with joy.
Filled with joy for and of one another. And this is a side effect of the fellowship. Christian fellowship is a great encouragement to the church and to the believer. Individually and as a body, we will face difficult times.
We will face hardships. We will face suffering. We share in suffering. Through Christian fellowship, we find encouragement in these hard times. And what a great joy it should be when we gather together.
When we gather together, our time of worship is very much central and the most important of our gatherings, but I believe true Christian fellowship goes beyond that. Daily interactions. Sharing meals together.
Investing in one another's lives. Learning about each other. Really desiring to be a brother and a sister to one another. The joy of Christian fellowship is experienced in all of these things. The Spirit of God is present in Christian fellowship.
When we meet and hear the Spirit of God is present, when we interact with each other on a daily basis, when we share meals together and discuss things like theology, the Holy Spirit is there in those interactions.
God is present in those. And we find joy and satisfaction in our relationships with one another. Philippians 1 .3 -11 I thank my God in all my remembrance of You. Always in every prayer of mine for You all making my prayer with joy because of Your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now.
And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about You because I hold You in my heart for You all are partakers with me of grace both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel.
For God is my witness how I yearn for You all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that Your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that You may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
In that Scripture, v. 3 -6, when Paul thought of them, he was filled with joy. When he thought about these Philippian believers, when he prayed for them, it filled him with joy. In v. 7, it says, he held them in his heart and he longed to see them.
What a pure, joy-producing gift we have been given in one another. There are many things in this life that promise to give you happiness or a worldly joy. And there are many things that will give you worldly joy and temporary happiness.
But we have been given a gift in one another, united in Christ, that produces a joy for all eternity. A joy that points to the One who is our true joy. God. As one by one, we will pass from this life to the next.
Paul was about to leave this earth behind. He was about to die. But he knew he would fellowship with Timothy again. He knew he would fellowship with him again as we pass from this temporal life into the eternal.
This gift of fellowship will pass into the eternal with us where for all of eternity, we will experience true joy together as we lift up praises to the one true King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And may we thank God for His goodness to us and for giving us one another.
And may we thank God for Christian fellowship and pursue it all the more. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, as we have gathered here and worshipped You, I thank You for this group of people that come from various backgrounds, come from various countries.
Lord, have different interests, different hobbies, different stories. Father, we are united in the thing that matters and that is in Christ. May we have a joy. May a joy be produced, Lord, when we gather together, when we fellowship.
May we not neglect to fellowship with one another. May we not neglect together with one another and invest in one another's lives. Lord God, may we exhort one another, whether it be through a picking up of encouragement or whether it be through, Lord, chastening one another in love.
Father, may we care more about each other's souls than we do about being popular or hurting somebody's feelings. Lord, may You knit our hearts together. May our love for one another grow deeper as our love for You increases.
Lord, as we are sure to face trials, as we are sure to face hard times in the future due to our own sin and the sin of this world and this culture, may we be united in Christ. May we stand upon that foundation.