Sermon Tone Analysis

A grade school teacher held the obligatory show and tell.

She told her students to bring with them some symbol that represened their religion.

The next day, the first student stood up and he said, “My name is Benjamin.

This is a star of David; I’m Jewish,” and went on to explain a bit.

The next student stood in front of the class and said, “I’m Mary.

I’m Catholic, and this is a rosary,” and she explained a little bit.

The third student got up and said, “My name is Tommy.

I’m a Baptist, and this is a casserole.”

>We must admit that our understanding of fellowship could stand to be a little bit deeper.

Fellowship—κοινωνία—is more than casseroles and crock-pots, more than a once-a-month gathering.

Fellowship is more than a word that we throw around at random within the church.

Fellowship is a common word, with uncommon characteristics; fellowship produces uncommon, life-changing results.

Fellowship transcends time and distance.

True Christian fellowship runs deep.

I’ve been blessed to know and experience true Christian fellowship throughout my life.

Throughout my childhood, my parents dragged me around as they fellowshipped with other couples in our church—the Helms and the Huckriedes and the Schmidts (and the Cases) would get together to hang out, to serve together (one of my most vivid memories is all of us painting the Sunday School rooms at the church), to study the Bible together.

I watched my parents and their friends— Christian brothers and sisters—take care of each other and pray for each other and do things for and with each other.

It was only natural, then, that as I got older, fellowship was part of my life—something built into the fabric of who I was.

This last Thursday, I buried my good friend, Mike, with whom I spent hours upon hours fellowshipping.

Mike and his wife Kathy were always having us over to their home for dinner and Bible study (Kathy makes the best chicken enchiladas in the wide world).

Mike took me pheasant and quail hunting.

Mike and Kathy took us to concerts and led our youth group time and taught our Sunday School classes.

I learned and grew a great deal from my time with Mike and Kathy.

Fellowship has been a big part of my life.

The Lord has placed people in my life who have been there for me through thick and thin; people who have encouraged me and looked out for me, people who have been there in good times and bad, people with whom I’ve served the Lord and alongside whom I’ve grown in the faith.

I’ve told you before about my group of friends from Overbrook—the Joshes, Rachael, and the Postlethwaits.

I’m thoroughly convinced the Lord placed us together as a impromptu small group (it happened without our even trying).

We’d meet once a week at the Postlethwait’s for snacks or dinner and then we’d study God’s Word together.

It’s been more than a decade ago since we first got together.

Since then, we’ve all of us moved away from Overbrook, some of us out of state, at times living hours away from each other.

And yet, this I know: if I ever need anything, I can call Josh or Josh & Rachael or Ben & Kacy.

Likewise, they know they can call me for anything at all.

We’ve walked with each other through job loss and cancer and the death of family members; we’ve celebrated births and weddings and baptisms.

We get together every now and again, just to spend time and fellowship.

We pray for one another.

We are concerned for one another.

We love one another.

We are family (I’ll tell you more about this at the end of the sermon).

This—this fellowship where people love and pray for and express concern—this is something God does through His people, for their benefit.

The book of Genesis tells us: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth...God saw all that He had made and it was very good.

Then the Lord, in His sovereign goodness, determined, “It is not good for man to be alone.”

And it’s still not good for man to be alone; we’re made to connect with other people.

We need human connection.

We need personal contact, personal touch; we need fellowship—pure and simple.

And yet, fellowship can be tough.

There are many real challenges to Christian fellowship.

We can’t just say, “Okay, let’s fellowship,” and expect fellowship to take place.

It takes committment.

And it means prioritizing.

Fellowship is absolutely crucial, but not without its challenges.

Some 30 years after the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, a small, young church in the city of Colossae was meeting in Philemon’s home.

Philemon was a leader in the church—a faithful man, known for his love.

One of Philemon’s slaves, a man named Onesimus, ran away from Philemon and made his way to Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ who was imprisoned in Rome.

Onesimus was saved by the grace of God through the ministry of Paul, and began to help and minister to Paul.

Paul found Onesimus very useful, very helpful.

Paul tells Philemon that he would have liked to keep [Onesimus] with him, to help.

But Paul knew the right thing, the better thing was to send Onesimus back to Philemon.

Paul chose to do what was hard—incredibly hard.

But this—sending Onesimus home to Philemon—held the great potential for blessing: blessing for Philemon and Onesimus, blessing for the church there in Colossae, and blessing for us here today.

The blessing for us in this recorded interaction between a slave and his master, between Onesimus and Philemon is that we would learn the lessons herein—lessons of grace and love, forgiveness and fellowship.

>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Philemon.

If you are able and willing, let’s stand for the reading of God’s Holy Word.

Philemon 17-25:

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

>I’ve been told, more times than I can count: “You don’t need to go to church to be a Christian.”

That’s absolutely true…and absolutely wrong.

It’s true: church attendance has absolutely nothing to do with making a person a Christian; faith in Christ makes a Christian.

“You don’t need to go to church to be a Christian.”

That’s absolutely true.

“Saving faith is personal.”

And it’s absolutely, completely, dead wrong.

“Saving faith is personal, but active faith is communal.”

There is no such thing as a lone-ranger Christian.

God didn’t call a bunch of individual persons to Himself; He called a people—one people, in Christ, people from every tribe, race, language, and nation.

We are a chosen PEOPLE!

You can’t be a people by yourself.

You can’t fellowship by yourself.

You can’t fellowship listening to the radio or watching the TV.

Christian, this I know: you will never come to a full understanding of everything you have in Christ on your own.

You will never grow in Christlikeness all on your own.

You need fellow Christians around you to encourage you, to challenge you, to correct you, to sharpen you, to slap you upside the head when you’re acting like a doofus.

It’s through personal interactions with others that we grow.

I am who I am because of the other Christians God has placed in my life; I am who I am because of my wife, my parents, my pastors, my friends, my professors, my church family; I am who I am because of you.

I need you.

We need each other.

This is just exactly what God intended: that His people would be part of a fellowship.

The Lord gave us one another and intends for His people to be part of a fellowship...

A fellowship with a fresh perspective

In Christ, “it’s a whole new world, [with] a new fantastic point of view”.

Having a relationship with Christ changes the way we think (or it should).

It should change the way we think about and see other people, especially.

Jesus shatters our old perceptions and gives us a new set of glasses with which to view the world.

Jesus stepped onto the stage of history and shook-up the established order of things.

In Christ, there is no longer any distinction between Jew and Gentile:

Jesus Christ destroyed the barrier, the division between Jew and Gentile, making the two groups one (Ephesians 2:14).

In Acts 15, the Church council met to determine how one became acceptable to God.

Some said that the Gentiles had to be circumcised in order to belong to the people of God.

But the leaders of the Church said, “No sir!

Because of Jesus, we have a different way of looking at one another.

As you know, our sinful, fallen human nature loves to create barriers.