Life and Fellowship Existed from the Beginning — Zac Poonen

This day when we come together. Thank you for this technology that you have provided in this time to reach many places at the same time. We pray that you will make this a time of spiritual profit to each of us.

Give us ears to hear what you have to say. We pray in Jesus name. So, Annie would just like to say hello to all of you. So happy to see you. May God bless this time together. I'm sorry she's not gonna preach today so you may be a bit disappointed.

Fellowship in the New Covenant

Okay let's, our subject is fellowship in the body of Christ. I want you to turn to 1 John and chapter 1. You see these two words, fellowship, body of Christ, are words that are never found in the Old Testament.

Under the old covenant there was no such thing as fellowship. Very important to understand that you know in CFC we emphasize new covenant and I believe one of the reasons God raised up CFC was to emphasize the new covenant.

I'm not saying we are the only ones talking about new covenant. I'm sure many churches talk about it but to emphasize it as much as we should, that's not done sufficiently. Building the body of Christ is not emphasized sufficiently around the world and so something is missing.

You know I believe it's like some major organs in our human body missing. You can survive without some internal organs. I don't mean heart or liver but or kidneys but some organs in your body even if they are removed you can still live but your life will be substandard.

If your arm is missing you can still live. If one eye is missing but it'll be substandard and so if we don't understand everything in the new covenant we will still live. I mean a lot of Christians are fine Christians but there's something missing and it'll be a great tragedy if we see Jesus face to face when he comes back and we get a clear picture of our entire earthly life and discover in that day there was something we missed out completely on which was written very clearly in the New Testament.

There are very few people, I'll tell you honestly, there are very few people today who seriously study the New Testament and even many preachers. They are mostly interested in collecting money and what they call reaching the lost.

I'm all for reaching the lost but if you don't make them disciples they'll be lost again. You gather the fish into a net which is full of holes what will happen? Those fish will go out again and then another evangelist has come got to bring his net full of holes.

This is what's happening. Fish come in, they get counted, they get lost again, they get caught again. But if you want to preserve them then we must lead them to discipleship in the new covenant. So fellowship, these two words, fellowship the body of Christ.

They are not found in the Old Testament because the reason is they did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. In the Old Covenant the Holy Spirit was upon them to equip them, you know, to split the Red Sea or pull down the walls of Jericho, tear lions apart and defeat armies and establish an earthly kingdom of Israel in the land of Canaan.

But the Holy Spirit was not inside them. That's why even a man after God's own heart like David committed adultery. He didn't have the life of God in him. He could not have it. Great prophets like Elijah would get depressed even after bringing fire down from heaven.

Can you imagine getting depressed after bringing fire down from heaven? Why did Elijah do that? Because he didn't have the Holy Spirit within. Don't despise him. He was a hundred times better than all of us but he lived in an age when the Holy Spirit was not within.

And when we talk about fellowship and the body of Christ both are entirely dependent on the Holy Spirit having complete control inside us. So if you only understand the theory in these days nothing will happen.

You'll be just the same next year and the year after. But if you open your heart in these days to the Holy Spirit and say, Lord I want revelation from the Holy Spirit in my spirit within. I want my life to be changed.

I want to understand what life in God is, what fellowship is, and what building the body is. Those who hunger and thirst for it, God will fill them. There's no partiality with God. So let's turn to 1 John.

John’s Witness to Christ’s Eternal Life

1 John is a very important letter because of one reason. It was written by John when he was about 95 years old. The Gospel of John was also written when he was 95 years old. And it's amazing how the Holy Spirit reminded John and inspired him to write of things that happened 65 years ago when he walked with Jesus.

You know, can you can you try and think of things that happened even when you 30 years ago? Leave alone 65. Most of you are not 65. But imagine, try to remember something that happened clearly to write down a story of what happened 35 years ago in your life.

It's so difficult. John was writing in his Gospel about things that happened 65 years earlier inspired by the Holy Spirit. And you find that John writes certain things which are not found in any of the other three Gospels.

Some amazing stories. For example, the marriage in Cana, the turning of water into wine, the first miracle that Jesus did. It's not even mentioned in the other three Gospels. John writes it. Isn't that a wonderful story?

Or of the woman caught in adultery whom the Pharisees wanted to stone, whom Jesus released by saying he was without sin, cast the first stone. What a lovely story. Something would have been missing if that story was not there.

But it's not in the other three Gospels. All those wonderful chapters, John 14, 15, 16, 17, they're not in the other Gospels. And John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes that. I thank God for that, you know.

It's wonderful. And think of this wonderful statement found in John 13, verse 34 and 35. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. Not found in any of the other Gospels.

Or all men will know you're my disciples when you love one another. Don't you think that's a very important verse, John 13, verse 35? But it's amazing that Matthew, Mark, and Luke don't even mention it.

And John, writing 65 years later, mentions what Jesus said, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Of course, they, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, had to write what they were inspired to write. But this is the basis of fellowship in the body of Christ.

All men will know you're my disciples when you love one another. So it's not a question of knowing doctrines alone. We emphasize every doctrine in the New Testament. Even things like, don't get into debt.

Women, rail your heads. So many things. But these are not the central things of the Christian life. The central thing is you must love one another. You can do all those external things that we don't have a pastor, and we don't have paid ministries, and all that.

But if you don't love one another, all those things are worthless. Some of those people who do those things, if they love one another, will be better than us. So fellowship is built on that verse. So one John, John writes it when he's 95, as I said, and I want to tell you something else.

John also wrote the book of Revelation. And in the book of Revelation, you all read it in chapter 2 and chapter 3, there are messages to the seven churches. I'm not going there now, but you know, if you've read them, that five of those seven churches and five of those elders of those seven churches were backslidden.

They were in such a bad shape that to one of the elders, the elder in Laodicea, the Lord writes, you're wretched, miserable, poor, spiritually poor, spiritually blind, spiritually naked. Can you imagine telling an elder of a church, which was once planted by the apostles, you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked?

Now, if you say that to some backbencher sitting in a church, I can understand. But to tell the elder of a church, you're wretched, you're miserable, spiritually poor, blind, and naked. And you say, hey, was this a church planted by the early apostles?

Sure. There's no guarantee that the church will remain spiritual just because it was planted by a mighty apostle. It all depends on whether there are good God-fearing elders to lead that church forward.

And that's why in Revelation 2 and 3, you read about Philadelphia, such a wonderful church. The Lord says, I'll make you a pillar in the house of God. And he stands by them and he says, I'll make you firm, strong witnesses for me.

So it all depends on leadership. And it all depends on whether the right things are emphasized in a church. So one of the most important things is fellowship. So John saw all this. He saw how Christianity started on the day of Pentecost with a mighty baptism in the Holy Spirit, where 120 separate individuals were praying on the day of Pentecost, and they got fused into one body.

Pentecost and the Formation of One Body

It's like 120 pieces of iron being thrown into a furnace, and they come out as one piece. That's what happened on the day of Pentecost. They didn't remain 120. After the day of Pentecost, they became one.

That was fellowship. And that was the body of Christ. And that was the beginning of the body of Christ. On the day of Pentecost, when 120 people became one with each other, loved one another, I mean, they loved each other so much that some of them sold, in those early days, sold their houses.

Can you imagine? Sold their houses and went to living in rented houses just because there were some poor people among them who didn't have any money. That's rare to see that type of Christianity. I'm just trying to show you the depth of their fellowship.

They were really one with each other. I mean, it's like a father would gladly sell his house if he finds his children are starving and go and live in a rented house because there's love there. But that is the depth of love those early disciples had, and it's very rare to find it.

But it is the power of the Holy Spirit. And the reason was they experienced fellowship, and they had become one body. You see how a left hand will do a lot of work when the right hand is injured or handicapped or broken?

Why does the left hand do all the work, the work of two hands? Because it's part of the same body. Now, my left hand will not go and help somebody else whose hand is broken because I'm not part of his body.

But when my own hand is broken, this left hand will do the work of two hands. That is body. And that is what Jesus is trying to build all over the world. And it's very rare to find because people come together just to sing songs and what they call praise and worship and make a lot of noise and hear certain sermons.

And so many of them are so boring. And nothing is built. There's no fellowship and there's no body. They come together. It's more like a club. So, dear brothers and sisters, God has not brought you together just to start another church like that.

If it's like that, you might as well go and join one of those other, there are multitudes of churches there. You've got to see your vision. It doesn't matter if you're small. The early church was very small.

I mean, the disciples were already 12 in number when they started, 11 really. And most of the churches I've seen that God has raised up, all started very small. But they emphasized quality. They emphasized fellowship.

They emphasized building the body. And therefore, something came out of it. So, it's very important that we emphasize these things, fellowship and building the body of Christ. So, turning to 1 John. So, as I said, John had seen the backslidden condition of all these churches in the first century.

Life Over External Gifts and Forms

And keeping that in mind, he writes about the most important things. You know, there are many things written in the New Testament which are not found so much in the Old Testament. For example, the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

A lot of people place a lot of emphasis on speaking in tongues. That's a good gift for a man to communicate with God. But it's very interesting that John, in this episode, does not even say one word about it.

He doesn't say one word about it in the Gospels, and he doesn't say one word about it in his letter. I mean, the way a lot of people emphasize that in Pentecostal circles today, you would think that is the solution to everything.

I wish it were. But I've seen tongue-speaking people, 95 of them are so carnal and worldly, and I don't believe that speaking in tongues is genuine at all. It's a fake. One of the easiest gifts of the Spirit to counterfeit.

And I would rather not have a counterfeit at all than pretend that it is a real thing. What John emphasizes is not even healing. That's another thing a lot of people emphasize today. Physical healing.

Great, if Jesus can heal the sick. Now, I believe that. But when churches are in a backslidden state, what does John the Apostle emphasize? Not speaking in tongues and not healing. You won't even find a verse about that in one John.

And it's important to see that because then we can learn a lesson as to what is important and what is not so important. It's like in the human body, you know, we have nails and little fingers, but they're not as important as the heart, the liver, and the kidney.

So we have to see what is the most important thing. Are we majoring on minor issues? Then we will not build the body of Christ. We need to see what is major in the Christian life. And if you read one John, you'll really understand it.

And here's a man, he's not a young fellow who's just getting up and preaching. He's 95 years old. And I have a feeling that, I mean, I've read that John was so old in those days that he couldn't even walk properly.

He had to sit in a chair and they used to carry him to the front of the hall in the chair. And he would sit there and speak to people and say, little children love one another. Here was a saint, 95-year-old godly man walked with God for 65 years speaking to us.

So when we read this, think of John, 65 years of walking with God, a spiritual life, speaking to you from his letter. That's how we got to see it. A man who's seen the condition of Christianity, how it started in the day of Pentecost, how it declined in 65 years.

And so many churches, so worldly, and he's giving a message to them to try and revive them. And the main emphasis in John's letter is life and fellowship. You say he doesn't mention the body of Christ here.

See, you can talk about the body of Christ like Paul does in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians. And very often when people talk about that, they're emphasizing the outward form that in the body of Christ, there must be apostles and prophets and evangelists and teachers.

That's mentioned Ephesians. And then there must be these different gifts and 1 Corinthians 14, how they are to be exercised and how the meeting of the church must be. That's all good. And John knew that Paul had written it and he endorses it completely.

But he's saying that just like Paul said in the last days that people will have a form of godliness without the inner power. John knew that he had come to that place where Paul had died 20 -30 years earlier and John was still living, the only apostle.

And he saw that people were using all these verses and everything else in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians and talking about the body of Christ and all that, but it was only the form. And I find that can very easily happen in CFC church where we have so many correct doctrines.

And some of you who are clever and can understand and listen to many messages, you can speak about these things, but it can only be a form of godliness without the inner power in life. So John realizes the main thing is to have the inner reality more than the outward form.

The outward form is important. Think of it like this, the doctrines in the Bible, in the New Testament, new covenant doctrines are all important. Like all the members of our body are important. Which member would you like to cut off?

You can live without your little finger, correct? But you don't want to cut it off. And in the same way, you can live without a whole hand, but you don't want to cut it off. So the parts of our body, we can say are all the doctrines in the Bible, in the New Testament.

Which one do you want to get rid of? I don't even want to get rid of the smallest doctrine in the New Testament, not even a little nail. I want every doctrine in the New Testament, but the important thing in this body is the breath.

If you take away the breath from this body, it'll be dead. All the ten fingers will be there, the eyes and nails and everything are there, but the body is dead. This is the condition of so many people who measure on doctrine.

I pray that your churches will not measure on doctrine, but on life, the life of God that comes in us through the Holy Spirit. This is why it's so important to be filled with the Holy Spirit all the time, all the time, to be filled with the Spirit so that the life of God surges in us.

Jesus spoke of it like rivers of living water flowing out from us all the time. We must never be satisfied with anything less than that. And the condition for that is to thirst and believe. Jesus said, if anyone thirsts, if a person is satisfied with a substandard Christian life, I can guarantee in 50 years, you'll never go higher than that.

But if you have a thirst in your life for more than you have right now, you say, Lord, I want your best in my life. I want your best. And if you have a hunger and thirst for that all the time, I'll tell you honestly, I was born again 58 years ago when I was 19 and a half and is nearly going to be 59 now.

And I still have a tremendous hunger and thirst to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Every day I say, Lord, I cannot accomplish your will for my life if I'm not filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm not satisfied with anything I've done in the past.

There's a curtain behind my body where I don't look back to the past. Paul said, forgetting the things that are behind. So I live my life as if I've done nothing for the Lord till today because there's a wall behind me.

I look back and I see a blank wall. There's nothing there. Forgetting the things that are behind and pressing on to so many other things God wants to accomplish through me. I pray that you have that passion in your life.

Some of you are so young. It's so important that you begin your life with a passion, not just to sit in a good church to meet regularly, but that you will have the very life of God through the Holy Spirit inside you.

So that's what John writes. Turn with me to 1 John 1. See, he goes back to the beginning of time, before time began, before Genesis 1 verse 1. John writes in his gospel, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

That is, Jesus was there in the beginning. That's actually the first verse in the Bible, John 1 .1, before Genesis 1 .1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. So he's talking about that time in 1 John 1 .1.

He always goes back to the beginning, 1 John 1 .1. What was there in the beginning when there was no universe, no angels, no human beings, no church, no doctrines, no Bible? What was there right in the beginning?

There was life, the life of God. That's what he's talking about. And when Jesus came to earth, he says, we heard it. We saw it. We looked at it, verse 1. We touched it. That life which existed from all eternity before the worlds were created, I heard it in Jesus.

I saw it in him. I touched it. And he says, this life we have seen and testified. This is the eternal life, verse 2, which was with the Father from all eternity, and it was manifested to us. Now, why is he saying this?

Because Jesus had gone up to heaven 65 years earlier. And the main emphasis John is bringing out here is, dear brothers and sisters, this is the life which other people in the world must touch and see in you.

Now, you see the challenge there? Do you know the life you're supposed to manifest to the world around you, you and me? Not just a good, decent life, and then we go regularly from church services. No, the very life of God, which was there right in the beginning before the worlds were created, which was once manifested through Jesus on this earth, and which God wants to continue to be manifested through his body.

The Body of Christ and the Ordinary Life of Jesus

Why is the church called the body of Christ? That title was never given to Israel. The bride, that was given to Israel. You read in Isaiah, Israel is called the bride. The family of God, the kingdom of God, kings and priests, those titles are all given to Israel also.

But there was one title never given to Israel. Israel was never called the body of God. We are called the body of Jesus Christ. That's special because we have a demonstration in the first body of Christ.

The first body of Christ is Jesus himself. He came in a body and it's not just that he did miracles and cast out demons. That is only three and a half years, 10 of his life. A lot of people concentrate on 10 of Jesus' life.

They think following Jesus means you've got to heal the sick, raise the dead, travel, preach sermons. Listen, I say that is only 10 of his life. What was he doing the other 90 of his life? What was it that made the father say at Jesus' baptism, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, even though at that stage when Jesus was 30 years old, he had never healed a sick person.

He had never, you know, raised the dead, never cast out a demon. But the father said, I'm well pleased with him. Think of that, you know, many of you don't have any supernatural gifts. Do you believe that God can be pleased with you?

Please listen carefully. Do you believe that your heavenly father can be very pleased with you, even though you never preach a sermon, you never heal a sick person, you never cast out a demon, you never travel outside your town or city to evangelize anyone, you've not done anything which people call ministry, you've never built a local church.

Can the father be pleased with you? I say yes. Jesus didn't do any of these things for 30 years. But do you know what Jesus did for 30 years? In Nazareth as a carpenter, he was a businessman, self, you know, self-supporting businessman as a carpenter from the age of 18 to 30.

And I think Joseph had died by then. And he supported himself and his family. And he lived the life of God in his home and in his place of work. Can you do that? When you think of Jesus' life, 30 years out of 33, which is 90 of his life, he was not a preacher.

He was a hardworking businessman trying to earn his own living, poor businessman, poor carpenter, trying to earn his own living, taking care of a family with four brothers and sisters and a mother, an eight-member family.

How many of you got eight members in your family? He had to take care of eight members in his family, and he had to work hard, sweat, perspire, earn his living in order to support that family. That was his life for 30 years.

But in those 30 years, he manifested a life of purity, of humility, of love, goodness. I'm sure he helped a lot of poor people in Nazareth, even though he never did any miracles. I'm sure he encouraged a lot of discouraged people in Nazareth just by words that he shared with them, even though he never preached a sermon.

Everything that every one of you can do, every one of you can do that, what Jesus did for 30 years. You may not be able to do what Jesus did in the last three and a half years of his life. Forget that.

But you can all do what he did for the first 30 years. He kept himself pure. He was eagerly desirous to manifest the glory of God. He spent time in prayer with his father when he was alone. He used to go to the wilderness, and in our cities and towns, there's no wilderness.

But early morning, when everybody's asleep, it's a very precious time when you can be alone with God, even a few minutes. Or if you wake up in the middle of the night, unexpectedly, to spend a few minutes with God.

It's possible. Sometimes we are alone in a room or somewhere traveling, and we're alone. Precious times when we can be alone with God. You make use of that. That's what Jesus did. That's what Jesus did.

He was alone with God frequently in those early days, and that's what gave him that strength to live that life. So I hope this will encourage you. This is how, if each of you concentrate on that life, then fellowship will be built.

Fellowship Through Union with Christ

Because think of fellowship in our human body. I've said this many times, and I never get tired of repeating it. How does my left hand fellowship with my right hand? Think of a pianist who's playing with two hands, and his feet are playing the pedals, and his eyes are looking at the score on the music sheet.

How many parts of his body? His eyes are looking here. His eyes are not even looking at his fingers. His eyes are looking at the score on the music sheet. His feet are on the pedals. He's not looking there.

And yet, all these parts are functioning so perfectly. A really good pianist is really amazing to see how both his feet and both his hands and his eyes are functioning so perfectly, and such beautiful music comes out of it.

There's only one reason. Only one reason. All those parts of the body are connected to the brain, and the brain is, you know, in split-second timing, telling the left hand where to play, and the right hand where to play, and when to press the pedal, and the eyes must look here, and all it's in split seconds, like electricity.

So fast everything goes that everything is perfect. That is the picture of fellowship. Completely different members, left hand, right hand, working together, because they both are connected to the life of the head.

That's why I'm emphasizing life first. The reason why two believers can't have fellowship, or a husband and wife can't have fellowship, is not because they don't spend a lot of time together. You know, marriage counselors say, you know, spend a lot of time together, go for a walk, and all that.

All that is excellent. I'm not against it. By all means, do it. I myself counsel married couples to go for a walk, take time together, and spend time together, resolve your differences every day, never go to bed angry.

All that is good. But I'll tell you this, you can do all of that, and there are people who still fight, and quarrel, and divorce. The way to fellowship is by being connected to Christ, the head. When these two hands are connected to the head perfectly, even if they don't always hang around together, fellowship together, they work perfectly.

So remember this, fellowship is not based on spending a lot of time together in a busy world like ours. How much time do you get to fellowship with all the others in your church? Probably very, very little.

I mean, our life is so busy nowadays that you don't really get much time to meet with others and all that. But we can still have very good fellowship if each of you are connected to the head. I've sometimes seen this.

Somebody I've not seen for one or two years, and he's faithfully walking with the Lord, connected to the head, Jesus Christ, and I'm connected to the head, Jesus Christ. What happens when we meet after two years?

It's immediately we come into fellowship as if we have been meeting every day. Our fellowship is so sweet and close, only one reason, that both he and I have been connected to the head for all these two years that we never saw each other.

See, that teaches us something, that the basis of fellowship is not only spending time together and coming for meetings, which is very important. The Bible says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together like some people do.

It's very important to meet together. But if you meet together and you're not individually walking in the light with God, you will not have fellowship. So turning back to 1 John now, let me read further there.

Life, Fellowship, and Fullness of Joy

He says there, you know, this life was manifested, verse 2, and that's what we are talking about in testifying this eternal life. And he says, the reason I'm proclaiming this to you, please look at verse 3, please follow with me in your Bible.

In verse 3, what we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father, his Son, Jesus Christ. Did you see that? He begins with talking about life and ends up saying, the reason I'm talking about life is so that you can have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father, that is with the head.

Exactly what I said, these two hands work together because they are connected with Christ in heaven. And remember, John is writing this because he saw the pathetic condition of a lot of those churches in those early days.

And he said, boy, Lord, he was praying, Lord, please give me the right words to solve this pathetic condition of these churches, which are so backslidden. And the Holy Spirit inspires him. He said, don't talk about all the gifts of the Spirit.

That's not primary. These people have it and they are still not fellowshipping with each other. What they need is the life of God, which was there from the beginning. That will bring fellowship. So I pray that as we read this, we'll have a tremendous hunger and thirst in our heart saying, Lord, I want that very life that you had, that you manifested on the earth.

I want to say to you, my dear brothers and sisters, that is the essence of Christianity, to experience the life that Jesus had on earth in us, in our spirit that's manifested. It will be manifested in the way you speak.

It will be manifested in the way you look at people. It will be manifested in your actions. It will be manifested in the way you handle money. It will be manifested in the way you live your life on earth in every relationship with your wife, your children, with your colleagues at work, with unconverted people.

This must be a longing. Lord, even if you are few in number, help us to manifest the life of God. Jesus was the only person in Nazareth for 30 years who had the life of God. Just think of that. There was nobody else.

There were some good people there, but in Nazareth for 30 years, there was one man who had the life of God in him and he manifested it. And that meant that he was very faithful in his private life in temptation.

That's how he manifested it. We all have a private life, which other people don't see. It's your faithfulness there before God that will determine whether the life of God will be in you. And I want to tell you another thing.

There's a great verse in the Psalms. If you turn with me for a moment to Psalm 16. It's a very good verse. Often I think of this myself in Psalm 16 and verse 11. Psalm 16 and verse 11. In the middle of that Psalm, it says, in your presence, God is fullness of joy.

I want to tell you something. There's a lot of joy in many things in the world. A lot of people have joy in eating ice cream and a lot of people have joy in sex and a lot of people have joy in making a lot of money.

But fullness of joy, fullness is found only in the presence of God. In your presence, there is fullness of joy. And therefore, he says in verse 8, therefore, I've set the Lord continually before me. That means I always seem to live in the presence of God with the Lord in front of me because that's the only place where there's fullness of joy.

So his determination, the Psalmist that was David, and by the way, this is quoted about Jesus in Acts chapter 2. That's how he lived. The father was always in front of him. And this is the secret of a life full of joy.

And from that verse, Psalm 16, 11, I have made a rule for myself. And you can make that rule for yourself as well. Whenever I don't have fullness of joy, I am not in the father's presence. I'm not in the presence of the Lord.

Whenever I'm complaining, grumbling, murmuring, bitter, angry, I say to myself, I am not in the presence of God right now because in the presence of God, there's fullness of joy. When I'm anxious, afraid, I'm not in the presence of God.