“And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. And fear came upon every soul; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were dividing them up with all, as anyone might have need. And daily devoting themselves with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47) Dearly beloved, I am always in awe of the fact that God continues His work to save sinners, to bring the prodigal back to Himself, and in restoring those who have for a season wandered like straying sheep from their Shepherd. Not only in that glorious work, but in His work of strengthening and continuing to build up His church, the body of Christ, His bride. Us, the undeserving, unworthy, vile wretches that we are; God has set His heart upon us. What a truly amazing and mind-boggling thought. Pertaining to that thought, listen to Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me I should have never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love.” Anyhow, in our opening passage, we see fellowship being a huge part of the lives of the body of Christ. This fellowship consisted of the apostles’ teachings, the breaking of bread (communion), prayers, and praising God.
So, let me make this a bit more personal. Consider two things for me if you would. First, how many people do you know? Lastly, how many people know you? Most of us in today’s social media age can say they know many people, and many know them as well. Even for the church, we can say the same. We could tell you where most of these people live (and have lived), where they work, who they are married to, what their kids are into, and maybe even some personal hobbies of theirs. The opposite would perhaps be true too. However, how many people do you really know, and furthermore how many people really know you? It’s a sad situation when we settle for terminally casual relationships, especially within the body of Christ. We acquire and inquire of all sorts of superficial information on those whom we call brothers, sisters, and friends; however, we do not actually know them. We participate in weekly fellowship (sometimes more frequent than that), including but not limited to the feasts within your local church after services, and yet there is very little real fellowship going on. Before I go much further, let us dwell on God, which is always best to do. God is community. Think of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – all three are co-equal, co-existent, co-eternal, and yet they are distinct from one another, but all three are unified in what we call the Godhead. They don’t simply live in community with each other, they are a perfectly functioning community. We know that everything Christ does is in total agreement with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. The same is true with the Father and the Spirit. These three members all move, act, live, and speak as One. It is then inferred that because we are made in His image, that He has fashioned us to be engaged in community. We’ve been created a social people.
That being said, we’ve been created to live in intimate, personal, intentional community with others. Not only this, but we’ve been called to participate in humble, open, honest, consistent, committed and dependent relationships with one another in the body of Christ. As with all things, we through sin have marred and ruined this original design intention from God. Instead, we’ve sharpened our skills in managing seclusion, privacy, deflection of questions, and even closing ourselves off as to sharing who we truly are, where we truly are, and how things are truly going. Allow me to help us all examine ourselves with some thought-invoking questions. How many people know those specific areas where you’re easily tempted? How many people know of those areas of responsibility that can tend to overwhelm you? How many people know of those idols that you wage war with (or give in to) in your heart? How many people know those secrets of your past that still haunt you? How many people know of the places or things you seek to substitute identity in/or through? How many people know of those reasons why you may still doubt the goodness, truth, and power of God? How many of you can honestly say you know those things about those you claim to know? The life of a Christian is never meant to be lived as a hermit, we need fellowship, we need community, and furthermore we need accountability both to give and to be reciprocated.
All too often we come with excuses for not fellowshipping. Whether that be that we don’t have time, we don’t necessarily have much in common, or whatever the excuses may be. Let this not be the case, you make time for the trivial things in life, such as catching your favorite sports game on television, going out to the theaters when a movie that interests you is being aired, even sleeping in on the weekends. We can and ought to manage time for true accountability fellowship. As for not having anything in common with whomever it is, that is beside the point. Often times the closest of friends don’t have much in common, it is the similarities they share that makes them close, such as the same worldview, the same belief that the word of God is all-sufficient, inerrant, infallible and powerful, the desire to seek and obey the Lord, and the desire for the gospel to go forth to this lost and dying world. Fellowship is one of the many ways we seek to wage war against the flesh. It is vital for the Christian, and therefore vital for the bride of Christ. Solitude is the state in which you tend to lose the battles, the place where the devil seeks to devour you, the arena in which the world grabs hold of you with its enticement to covet and idolize the next best thing. Confession is a crucial and most necessary part of accountability fellowship, not to seek forgiveness from your brother or sister in Christ, for we already are forgiven, we are already cleansed by the blood of our Lord. “And this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not do the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:5-7) “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
Confession is key to accountability fellowship, as we then are open and honest with one another; we expect one another to conceal each other’s secrets. We then can exhort one another, pray for one another, strengthen and encourage one another, and point each other back to Christ, praising God together for growth and strength. As much as this may seem anti-thetical for men to be expressive in such ways, we need it most with one another. We need a small group of brothers that we can get together with and hold sweet accountability fellowship with, if nothing else, find another brother you can do this with. If you have trouble coming outright with that which you’ve been seeking to keep secret for so long, that which you fear people will not look at you the same, or that they may think less of you and your image will be marred because of it…just remember there is nothing that is a true secret, all is exposed and revealed by God. He knows every dark and secretive thing about you, including your thoughts and feelings. Yet even in that He has fixed His heart upon you, called you to Himself, and raised you up to a living hope, having forgiven your sins (past, present, and future), and calls you to join yourself together with the body of Christ, to build one another up in sweet, accountable fellowship. Allow me to quote Charles Spurgeon once again pertaining to this very thing, “We shall, as we ripen in grace, have greater sweetness towards our fellow Christians. Bitter-spirited Christians may know a great deal, but they are immature. Those who are quick to censure may be very acute in judgment, but they are as yet very immature in heart. He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he therefore does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more; he overlooks ten thousand of their faults, because he knows his God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case. He does not expect perfection in the creature, and, therefore, he is not disappointed when he does not find it. … I know we who are young beginners in grace think ourselves qualified to reform the whole Christian church. We drag her before us, and condemn her straightway; but when our virtues become more mature, I trust we shall not be more tolerant of evil, but we shall be more tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people of God, and certainly less arrogant in our criticisms.”
Stop the excuses, stop thinking that what you declare “fellowship” is enough, and step outside of the comfort zone, dig in deep and allow your brother in Christ to really know you, the real you. Don’t do this only with those you feel closer too, but go to the brother or sister whom you feel you have nothing relatable with and engage in such fellowship so as to build up and strengthen one another in the Lord. Listen to the wise words of John Winthrop, “We must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly affection, we must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities for the supply of others’ necessities.” Isn’t love, true biblical love, one that is self-sacrificial, it is one that puts the other first, one that seeks the best for the other; it is open, honest, and vulnerable with one another. If we say we love Christ, we will grow in a love for others, we will seek to elevate those we love, we will rejoice in their growth as well as when they receive blessings from the Lord, we will mourn with them when they mourn, we will be there to pick them up and walk alongside them. We will encourage them and help them in the race that we run as Christ’s bride. “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17) “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)
Brothers and sisters, let us be more intentional about real accountable fellowship with one another, carve out the time to do so normally. Let us be diligent in our obedience to Christ and His commands, to come alongside one another, to build one another up, to help each other fix our gaze upon Him in this race. Please understand, I am not saying seclusion is bad, even Jesus often went away by Himself, but that was to go pray, to spend time with the Father. That is how those times of seclusion must look for us too, going away to our closets, spending time in the word of God, praying, confessing sins, sharing in sweet time of communion with our Lord through the means of grace that He bestows on us. However, fellowship is crucial, to forsake true fellowship and be content with superficial knowledge of one another, it will be to our spiritual detriment. “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25) “Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, fulfill my joy, that you think the same way, by maintaining the same love, being united in spirit, thinking on one purpose, doing nothing from selfish ambition or vain glory, but with humility of mind regarding one another as more important than yourselves, not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:1-4)
Let us close with the word of our God. “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For also by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For also the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has appointed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, how much more is it that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, and those members of the body which we think as less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no such need. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-26)