Sermon by Bob Brown on Sunday AM 6/20/04
Joyful Fellowship
Text: 1 John 1: 5-10
As we look at this passage of Scripture, dealing with the
character of God, we must notice that real fellowship, or true
fellowship with God and each other begins with an understanding
of truth. If we are going to have fellowship with the Father and
with His Son, then we absolutely have to know the character of
God. Because, as believers, or followers of Jesus, we are called
into fellowship, or to be of one heart with Him.
We start out seeing that “God is light.” Remember that
back in the beginning, in Genesis, which means “beginnings,”
God created light. (Genesis 1:3) In Psalm 27:1 we read, “The
Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord
is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?”
I find this to be very interesting in the way that this sentence
is put together. The psalmist asks, “whom shall I fear?”
The obvious answer to me is the dark! But in God, there is no
darkness at all! So, when we are in a personal relationship with
the God of the universe, there is no fear. This is from John,
who spent a quantity of quality time with Jesus. So he saw firsthand
that there was no need to fear.
If we are going to have fellowship with God and His Son Jesus,
we must understand what it is and what makes it possible. Fellowship
has in its Greek stem the meaning “common” (koin). We,
as believers have certain beliefs that we hold in common. In its
broadest sense, fellowship or our commonness is that sense of
bonding and closeness that we share with one another.
The New Testament uses the term Koinonia, to speak of the believer’s
relation-ship with Christ and the mutual fellowship or closeness
among Christians.
Kononia, for the Apostle Paul, was the most appropriate term to
describe the unity and bonding that exists between Christians
by virtue of the fact that they share together in the grace of
the gospel, or “good news” of Jesus Christ.
So, if we take the message that John heard from Jesus, that “God
is light and in Him there is no darkness at all” then all
of our fellowship with Jesus and each other will be exposed to
the light of His truth. Truth, like life, in the Scriptures has
a moral content. We are not just to know the truth, but we are
also to do it, or live it. Just as we are not just to see the
light, we are to walk in it.
But, I have to tell you, not everyone is truthful about their
relationships with God or each other! One of the things that outsiders
don’t like is being outside. If there is a group, others
want in, even if they don’t understand what really makes
the group a group. So, they say the right things and even act
like everyone else, but they are missing something, the truth
of why they are there. They want to fit, but don’t have all
the right stuff.
Fathers, we have a major responsibility to be truthful in all
of our relationships with our kids. They can really spot a fake.
And let’s be careful to train them to outshine us, not be
afraid that they will.
So, God, in His great mercy designed a sort of litmus test for
us to take. We don’t sit down and take it—we don’t
answer verbally—it’s actually by living that we take
the test. John learned from Jesus and from the Holy Spirit a very
simple truth.
“If we claim to have fellowship [be of one heart with Jesus]
with Him, yet continue to walk not in the light of His love, but
in darkness, we are lying through our teeth!” (MSG)!
No one likes being exposed as a liar, but light does that to us.
We can’t slink around in the light; we have to see ourselves
as everyone else does. But the opposite is also true, “If
we walk in the light”, the light of God and His word and
witness, we will not only have fellowship with one another, but
our light will be seen by others as well.
Our real fellowship with one another comes because of Jesus Christ
dying on the cross, willingly, in our place, shedding His blood,
which purifies from all sin.
If you get nothing else, get this. The light of God, which is
Jesus, gave His life, to purify us, from ALL sin. What sin that
you have committed do you think is not covered by the death and
resurrection of Jesus? You’re covered, if you walk in His
light and life out His life.
We can’t just bask in his light, just hoping to get that
“glow” or tan from hanging around Him and others who
live in His light; we actually have to walk in His light and love.
Let’s pray. Lord, in a few minutes we as fathers and men
in this congregation are going to be honored and even receive
gifts. But our prayer is that none of us would neglect the greatest
gift of all, Your Son, and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
I pray that each one of us would take seriously the fact that
we need to walk in Your light and really have a love for each
other. Change our hearts, minds, lives, ears and eyes to really
live in You. Thank You Lord.