The Jesus Church - Week 2: Faith in the Gospel leads to a Fellowship of the Gospel | Ephesians 2:14-16

The four defining characteristics of a church that is able to carry out God's merch in the world.

Hopefully find this message.

For the three years that I was in seminary, I was the youth intern at a uh small church in Smithfield, North Carolina, which is about 45 minutes on the east side of Raleigh.

Um, and I vividly remember my very uh first Sunday at Smithfield.

I stood before the church and the pastor introduced me.

The pastor told the congregation, uh, Jonathan's a first-year seminary student, he's moved here from Arkansas.

Uh, let's make him feel welcome and right at home.

And they did, and so I sat through that very first worship uh service, and then there was a receiving line at the back of the sanctuary on my very first Sunday where I was able to meet everyone.

And um I especially remember one member of that church, his name is John, and I remember our very first conversation on that very first day.

Um, so John he walks up to me, he's a he's kind of a big guy, about 6'4, 6'5, and I'm not a big guy, and so he's standing over me, he reaches out and he shakes my hand and he goes, Welcome to the South.

And I just thought he wasn't listening.

So I said, Well, John, I'm from Arkansas.

He's like, Arkansas's not the South, and I was like, I think it is.

Well, so John, I think, was convinced I was a Midwesterner in disguise as a Southerner.

And so this was the very next comment out of his mouth.

I am not making this up.

It was his litmus test for whether or not I was a Southerner.

He looked at me, we're still shaking hands, and he says, I bet you've never seen a pine tree.

That's a cold, hard fact with zero embellishment.

And I was like, John, I've seen a lot of pine trees.

And John held on to that, okay?

He held on to that because uh when Lauren and I were married two years later, and the first time uh he met Lauren, do you know the first thing he said to her?

What do you think about all the pine trees?

Apparently John had never uh visited central Arkansas where I grew up or uh South Arkansas where I now live, because we got plenty of pine trees, don't we guys?

And we understand in Arkansas kind of the vital importance that trees play to our life, right?

Just think about how forestry for so long has been a big part of our local economy.

Uh you think about the world and how uh trees and how they produce oxygen for us to breathe.

But trees, and John was shocked that I knew what a pine tree was, uh, trees are more than just a vital piece of life.

They have um vital lessons that they can teach us about life and faith in the church.

I consider this tree.

It's called the last tree of Tenerah.

That's the last tree of Tenerah, right there.

It's located in the heart of the Sahara Desert.

And for a long time, that last tree of Tenerae was part of a rich forest of acacia trees, but by the beginning of the 20th century, it was the only tree that remained.

Only tree.

To the north, 250 miles, all desert.

To the south, 250 miles, all desert.

East and west, 250 miles, all desert.

The last tree of Tenerae became a caravan, caravan route marker for trucks driving through the desert.

Mapmakers even put it on their maps that they would pass out to those truck drivers.

And for decades, that last lone tree became known as the world's loneliest tree, stood in the Sahara Desert until 1973.

A trucker was driving through the Sahara Desert.

He had too much to drink, and the 250 miles north of the tree he missed, the 250 miles south of the tree he missed, a truck driver drove straight in to that tree.

And it fell to the ground.

Now, with its demise, the world's loneliest tree teaches you and I an important lesson about life, faith, and the church.

Because that tree, the world's loneliest tree, actually represents the prevailing opinion among evangelical Christians with regard to community and fellowship in the church.

A recent survey in the last three or four months was completed by Lifeway Research and Ligonaire Ministries, and an overwhelming majority of evangelical Christians agreed with this statement.

Let's put it up on the screen.

Worshiping alone or with one's family is a valid replacement for uh regularly attending church.

A majority of uh professing evangelicals, right, those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, are missing out on an important part of faith.

They're missing out on the fellowship.

And because they're missing out, they are quite similar to that lone tree in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

Faith without fellowship says I can go to loan.

As long as I have my Bible and my Jesus and my quiet time and my favorite podcast or my favorite YouTube preacher, I'll be just fine.

I'll be just fine, and I can make it through this desert that we call life.

Faith without fellowship may work for a little while, but it won't work for the long haul.

Going alone, being that lone tree in the desert, whether that tree represents your individual life or the family who lives under your roof, um, being that lone tree won't work when your one in a million moment occurs.

When the drunk driver careens into your car, when you hear those words, there's nothing more that we can do.

When your fiance calls it off, when your friend stabs you in your back, when your spouse walks away, when a single decision in your life uh kind of cascades into a self-destructive addiction.

You had always thought it won't happen to me, or that'll never be me, and then it happens, and then you are that person, and your faith falls to the ground.

It collapses.

In that moment, you wish you hadn't tried it alone.

You wish you had a fellowship that could hold you up.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why Psalm 133, verse 1, says this.

Psalms 133:1

It says, How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity.

God knows we need one another when the one in a million moment arrives.

And it will arrive.

Or maybe it's one of the reasons why Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25 commands us to not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Hebrews 10:25

God knows that when the desert is scorching hot, we need encouragement from one another.

We need one another to hold us up.

Friends, that's the reason why we have to leave behind the prevailing opinion of the American church and become the Jesus Church.

Last week we began a four-week series called the Jesus Church, uh based out of Acts chapter 2, verse 42.

Acts 2:42

Uh, a description of the very first Jesus Church and their defining characteristics.

We're looking at those characteristics week by week.

Acts 242 says this all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper and to prayer.

Together, those four characteristics show us how we as First Baptist Church of El Dorado can be God's embassy in this community, how we can be the Jesus church, a church that represents God's interest and mission, a church that adopts kingdom values.

And the first characteristic that we looked at last week, let's remind ourselves, was the apostles' teaching.

And we summarized what the apostles' teaching was with this statement.

The apostles' teaching is all about the gospel.

The apostles' teaching is all about the gospel.

And what's the gospel?

It's the story of Jesus Christ, is the saving news of God.

To be the Jesus Church in El Doredo, this has to be the message that we proclaim, and it has to be the culture that we cultivate.

And when that gospel that Christ died for our sins, that Christ was buried, that Christ was raised, that Christ will come again, when that gospel is proclaimed, when that sort of gospel culture takes root, something amazing happens.

Here it is.

Faith in the gospel leads to a fellowship of the gospel.

Faith in the gospel leads to a fellowship of the gospel.

You could personalize it this way: my faith in Jesus Christ, my faith in his gospel leads me to be a part of, be engaged in, to participate with a fellowship of believers who are rallied around the gospel of Jesus Christ, who are united around the gospel message.

Hear this clearly: to be the Jesus church, we cannot divorce faith from fellowship.

We cannot do it.

Faith in the gospel always leads to a fellowship of the gospel.

It always draws you in, it always brings you deeper into the life of fellow believers.

That's why fellowship is the second defining uh feature of the Jesus Church.

And fellowship's our topic for today.

In my mind, when I hear the word fellowship, um, especially as a kid, I equated the word fellowship with food.

Am I right?

Okay?

So, uh Holland Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, we were like famous for our fellowships, amazing fellowships.

Some of them are like fried chicken fellowships, right?

And if you want to bring me fried chicken today, I'm I'm down.

Um I'll eat it.

Uh I remember we'd have a fellowship in the spring that was like a breakfast fellowship, like pancakes, bacon, and eggs.

It was amazing.

Um, but my favorites were like the potluck fellowships, right?

And so, like as a kid, I'm like, they put all of these foods that are delicious but don't go together on one table.

Right?

Like in one meal, like I don't think I should have the choice between like a brownie cheesecake and a brownie, and then like cheese dip and another cheese dip and another cheese dip, and then multiple plates of sandwich trays.

Like, none of that went together, but it was really amazing and delicious, wasn't it?

Anybody ever had that experience before?

Yeah.

But hear this.

The fellowship that's named in Acts 242.

The fellowship named in Acts 242 is far richer than any food you've ever eaten.

Far richer.

Our English word fellowship reflects a Greek word that's seldom used in the New Testament.

It's the Greek word koinanea.

Can you say that with me?

Koinania.

So Greek philosophers use this word koinanea to describe the ideal human society.

A society where there is unity and impartiality and sharing.

It would be a society where the divide between haves and haves-nots was torn apart, where the wall between insiders and outsiders was uh laid to the ground.

This was their hoped-for vision.

It's what they worked for.

They saw this vision of a life where there was like this fabric of society that just brought people together.

But it was just a vision that they hoped for and nothing that they ever achieved.

And no one achieves koinea until the resurrected Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, sat down at the right hand of God the Father, and said, Holy Spirit, go into the world, and sent the Holy Spirit who fell at Pentecost.

Hear this koinanea, what's named in Scripture, is not the result of food.

It's the result of God's power at work among people, of the presence of the Holy Spirit bringing people together.

Faith in the gospel.

And the gospel, Paul says, is what?

Power.

It's God's power on display.

Leads to a fellowship of the gospel where people come together around this earth-shattering, life-changing message and rally around and are united, and there's no impartiality, and there's sharing, and insiders and outsiders are now a part of one fellowship and family.

In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul describes this.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

He says, For Christ Himself has brought peace to us.

He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.

He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations.

He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups.

Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

The Jesus Church has a profound experience of God's power.

In the first century, it was that Jew and Gentile, who for ages had been at odds with one another, were now a part of the same family, the same fellowship, all because of what?

The gospel of Jesus Christ.

So in a church, we experience a fellowship that can reach beyond what the world says should divide us because what unites us is far more powerful.

Faith in the gospel leads to a fellowship of the gospel.

So thus far we've um I've offered you kind of a definition of fellowship and then a scripture that kind of talks about the power of God's fellowship.

But maybe we can learn an important lesson about what fellowship is in our life again from trees.

So north of San Francisco is Muir Woods National Monument.

And Muir Woods is known for these magnificent groves of redwood trees.

Some of them over 250 feet tall, some of them have stood for 1,500 years.

And so just imagine over 1,500 years, the storms and the earthquakes that these trees have felt and encountered, yet they're still standing and they're still growing, all because beneath the surface of the ground, an individual tree has roots.

But when those roots grow out, they reach out and they take hold of the roots of the tree that are right next to them.

The tree that's side by side with them, they hold on to.

When the Holy Spirit empowers, we must surrender.

Like that's a vision of what it could be.

But will it be that?

Will we be a fellowship of the gospel?

Will we surrender and say yes to God's plan for his people?

And for this fellowship to actually happen, we have to be in agreement with God and make two personal commitments.

The first commitment is found at the very beginning of Acts chapter 2, verse 44, and it says this.

Acts 2:44

All the believers met together in one place.

Commitment number one is simply this show up, be present, make corporate worship a weekly priority for your family.

Here's what happens when God's people gather in one place, we cultivate fellowship as we sing alongside each other, as we pray for one another, as we read God's word together.

Something happens that we cannot even see, but God is at work knitting together the fellowship of the gospel that is the local church.

And just sitting in this room is a reminder that your brothers and sisters are with you.

You are not a lonely tree in the desert of life.

You are a part of a forest of trees, the fellowship of Jesus Christ.

Second, not just show up to worship.

You need to show up and be a part of a life group, of a Sunday school class, of a small group Bible study.

It's in these environments that we're truly able to stand beside and hold on to one another.

And these will be the people who encourage you and help you get through some of life's most difficult times.

Jonathan Sharks covered the National Basketball Association for a website called The Ringer.

I don't expect you to know the name Jonathan Sharks.

Maybe like one person or two people other than me in the room know who that is.

But there's a good chance, there's a chance you will meet him in God's heaven.

Sharks was a devout follower of Jesus Christ who a few weeks ago, in his late 30s, married for just five years, son, father to a two-year-old son, passed away after an extended battle with a rare form of cancer.

Sharks in the spring of this year wrote a piece for the website he worked for called Does My Son Know You?

Does My Son Know You?

You should read it this afternoon.

It's powerful.

It's beautiful.

And in this piece, Sharks gives a An extended reflection on family and fatherhood and faith in light of his terminal diagnosis.

And this morning, I want to read for you how Jonathan Sharks describes the role of his life group, that's his word, his life group in his life and in his family's life as he has gone through this journey and then met Jesus.

I know some of you are thinking to yourself, like, I don't have time to make another commitment on my calendar.

I don't have time to make that a priority.

I've got other things I've got to do.

His story is gonna remind you, it's something you have to make a priority.

Listen to what he writes.

He says, I was nervous the first time I went to a life group.

We've all felt that before, haven't we?

I joined a church the week before and one of the pastors invited me.

It was a smaller group of people who met at his house every week.

I remember walking up to the door and not knowing what to expect on the other side.

There were about a dozen people in the living room talking to each other.

I didn't know any of them besides the pastor, and I barely knew him.

I didn't know what to do, so I did what most people do.

I headed over to the table with snacks.

Eventually the chatter died down, and everyone sat in a circle in the living room.

Nothing that exciting happened.

They sang a few songs and then talked about the Bible for a while.

At the end of the meeting, everyone paired off to pray for each other, and the pastor asked me what I thought of the group.

He then asked if I would come back.

I said, I guess, but I wasn't sure.

That was seven years ago.

Some of those strangers from that house that first night are now some of my closest friends.

It didn't happen overnight.

It took me a long time to feel comfortable.

I usually came after the life group had already started and left as soon as it was over.

But I was seeing the same people every week, and I was telling them about my problems, and they were telling me about theirs, and you do that for long enough and you become friends.

You get to know enough people that way, and life group goes from being an obligation to something you look forward to.

Making the commitment to come every week is still hard.

There are always other things to do.

Sometimes you're tired or you had a long day or you just don't feel like it.

It gets even harder once you get married and have kids.

Nor are the people always easy to deal with.

You may or may not have a lot in common.

You have to search for things to talk about.

You can be vulnerable with people, and they don't always respond how you would expect.

And you certainly won't always agree with them on how they see the world.

The past two years haven't been easy.

People ask me whether I have to be more careful because of my condition in the pandemic.

But it's really the opposite.

I don't have the luxury of waiting for life to get back to normal.

This might be the only time that I have.

I can't imagine not being in a life group at this point.

Human beings aren't supposed to go through life as faces in a crowd.

It's like that song from Cheers.

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.

To the very end, Jonathan Sharks showed up to that small group Bible study until finally his friends just had to start visiting him.

Will you make that same commitment?

To show up for worship in life group, Sunday school, small group Bible study, so that we can experience the fellowship of the gospel.

Commitment one, show up.

Commitment two, share.

That's our second personal commitment, share.

Remainder of Acts 2, verse 44 into verse 45 says this they shared everything they had.

Acts 2:44

They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.

In the world of ancient Palestine, poverty was an everyday reality, an epidemic of epic proportions.

And in that world, the Jesus Church made the unthinkable commitment to share.

In the fellowship of the gospel, rich and poor come together on equal footing.

And sometimes people who had possessions would want to help someone else, and so they would sell their possessions and they would give it to the leaders of the local church and say, make sure someone gets this who could really use it.

And I've seen that happen at First Baptist Church of El Dorado so many times, and every time it's humbling.

So humbling.

I've seen people gather resources and purchase someone a car.

I've seen money given so students can go on a mission trip or children go to camp.

I've seen money given with the soul request, hey, just make sure this goes to someone who needs help paying their bills or buying groceries.

I've seen a life group buy furniture for a family.

And each time that occurs, I have this swell of joy in my soul because in that act of generosity and that act of sharing, I see members of this church exemplifying what it means to be the Jesus church.

A fellowship of the gospel.

And in the book, elementary school-aged kids are asked some of life's most difficult, perplexing questions, and the children are given the opportunity to answer them.

And in the all better book, one of the questions children are asked is this with the billions of people in the world, someone should be able to figure out a system where no one is lonely.

What do you suggest?

Kids had all sorts of answers.

Max, age nine, um, suggested that you should make food that talks.

Then you have a friend.

Matt, age eight, he said that um everyone should just get a pet.

Brian, age eight, said you should sing a song and stomp your feet and read a book.

Shouldn't someone be able to figure out an answer so that no one is lonely?

Well, God has the answer.

It's the fellowship of the gospel that we experience within the local church.

We stand beside one another and we hold on to one another.

We support one another and we share with one another.

And no matter the ferocity of the storm or the earthquake that shakes the ground, we hold on and we stand because that's the power of the gospel at work in our lives.

And God offers this answer, the fellowship of the gospel to the entire world.

Offers it to the entire world.

And if you want to experience that fellowship, first you must place your faith in the gospel.

Remember our statement at the very beginning: faith in the gospel leads to a fellowship of the gospel.

Fellowship doesn't precede faith.

Faith precedes fellowship, and faith leads to fellowship.

First, you must believe that Jesus is God's Son.

He lived a sinless life.

He died on the cross.

He rose again on the third day, and one day he will come again.

Listen, this morning, if you can hear my voice and you are lonely and you feel like that tree in the desert we saw at the very beginning, you don't have to go through life all alone.

Place your faith in Jesus Christ.

Start a relationship with God and then be drawn in to the fellowship of the gospel that is God's local church.

For others of us this morning, you have placed your faith in Jesus, and now it's time for you to make those two personal commitments.

Show up and share.

Show up.

Worship Life Group, weekly priority.

Share.

When I see a need in this church, I want to meet that need.

I want to help care for each other because we are in it together.

We are rallied around the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We've been transformed by it, and now we are unified by it.

Faith in the gospel leads to a fellowship of the gospel.

And the Jesus Church, listen, understands that all too well.

Let's stand together and pray.

Almighty God and everlasting Father.

We ask for your spirit to be at work in this place at this hour.

The fellowship that Jesus and his gospel make possible.

We want to experience in this place with these people in this room.

This unity, this sharing, this mutuality and impartiality where we're just in it together because of the gospel.

We're involved in one another's lives because of the gospel.

Father of Jesus, right now, would you make a commitment to show up and to share?

Make that commitment in agreement with God and his spirit.

Lord, hear the commitments of our heart that we'd see your fellowship emerge in this place.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

As we sing one more song together this morning, the altar is open and the invitation is this.

If you want to experience fellowship, first you must have faith in Jesus.

If you would like to put your faith in Jesus this morning, we invite you to come forward.

We would love to share more and lead you in prayer so that you can accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Maybe you've put your faith in Jesus, but you're looking for a fellowship.

If you'd like to join and become a part of this church family, we invite you to come forward.

And we would love to welcome you into this local church, this fellowship of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let's sing together.