Sunday's Message - Fellowship with Believers

Although it’s not hard to believe that we’ve been called by Christ, actually living that call may be a whole lot more challenging. And so, during the Sundays between the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of Lent, we’ll consider seven ways we can live as followers of Jesus. The topics are listed below. 

• January 16 – Decide to Follow (Mark 1:14-20)
• January 23 – Grow in the Word (2 Timothy 3:10-17)
• January 30 – Pray in Faith (Matthew 6:5-15)
• February 6 – Claim the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26)
• February 13 – Fellowship with Believers (Colossians 3:12-17)
• February 20 – Witness to the World (Matthew 28:16-20)
• February 27 – Minister to Others (1 John 3:15-24)

During this fifth message, we used Colossians 3:12-17 to discuss how we might strengthen our fellowship with other believers. 

You can stream all our services live by going to the Sligo Presbyterian Church YouTube channel. If you miss one of these messages, you can find a copy and podcast on the Sligo Presbyterian Church: Our Congregation and Community blog (https://thenettransform.blogspot.com/). 

Colossians 3:12-17 [Contemporary English Version]

God loves you and has chosen you as his own special people. So be gentle, kind, humble, meek, and patient. Put up with each other, and forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you. Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together.

Each one of you is part of the body of Christ, and you were chosen to live together in peace. So let the peace that comes from Christ control your thoughts. And be grateful. Let the message about Christ completely fill your lives, while you use all your wisdom to teach and instruct each other. With thankful hearts, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. Whatever you say or do should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks to God the Father because of him.

Fellowship with Believers

Now y’all may not know this, but today is maybe the third most important day on the church calendar, not as big as Christmas or Easter but probably more significant than Epiphany or Pentecost. As a matter of fact, it definitely influences the schedules of  most American congregations, and I’m talking about more than either the arrival of the wise men or the coming of the Holy Spirit. And of course, I’m talking about the Super Bowl. I mean, that’s why we had the annual meeting last week and scheduled a dinner after church today with great fear and trembling. You see, today is Super Bowl Sunday. And even though, as I remember, it wasn’t a big deal fifty-six years ago, that’s certainly not the case now. I mean, even people who don’t follow football are aware that today is special. As a matter of fact, they may even know the two teams that are playing: the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams, fangs against horns, Indian tigers vs. male sheep. What a country.

Of course, as I was putting together this series we stated about a month ago, I really wasn’t thinking about either an interspecies football game or a soup and salad luncheon. No, this is just one more message in a seven-part series entitled “Living the Call: Seven Ways to Live as Followers of Jesus Christ.” You see, on each of the Sundays between Epiphany and the beginning of Lent, we’re looking at seven different ways we can live as followers of Jesus. And to this point, we’ve considered how we can decide to follow by opening our minds and leaving behind our past and moving into the future and how we can also decide to grow in God’s word by loving it, learning it and living it. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about how we can pray in faith by trusting that God has interest and authority, compassion and expectations and then last week how we can claim the Spirit, something that’s really important for us to do because that Spirit informs us and empowers us and inspires us. Now that’s where we’ve been.

And today we’re going to focus on another way we can live as followers of Jesus Christ, and now I’m talking about having fellowship with believers. And as we’ve talked about during those other four messages, well, there’s an awful lot of stuff going on in our world that’s pulling us in the opposite direction, you know, that’s pushing people apart rather than drawing folks together. As a matter of fact, it sure seems as though we’re almost encouraged to focus our attention on what makes us different. And even though I think that’s pretty obvious when you’re talking about race and politics and even vaccines, I believe some of this has crept into the church, you know, among Christians. And I’ll tell you, I think you can see that happening, as more and more believers withdraw into their own little cults based on their rightness and the wrongness of others. Of course, in this kind of environment, genuine Christian fellowship is hard to come by. 

And for that reason, we’re going to spend a little time this morning thinking about how we, as followers of Jesus, can actually strengthen our fellowship with one another, something that happens when we decide to intentionally shift our focus from others to God. You see, we’re going to take this passage we just read from Paul’s letter to the Colossians and we’re going to talk about two things that God has chosen to do for us that can completely reshape the way we relate to one another, strengthening our fellowship and enabling us reach out into an often divided and hostile world. And like I said, it’s all in these verses. Let me explain. 

You see, according to Paul, God chose to love us and to makes us special. Now that’s the first choice I think we can see in the passage. I mean, just remember, this was what he wrote:

God loves you and has chosen you as his own special people. So be gentle, kind, humble, meek, and patient. Put up with each other, and forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you. Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together. [Colossians 3:12-14, CEV]

Now that was what he said.

And just think about what it means; the eternal Lord and creator of the universe chose to do these two things for us, his creatures. One, he chose to love us. And even though sometimes we assume that God loves us sort of like we love God, that’s just not the way it is. You see, our love is objective. In other words, we love because of the object loved. For example, I love my wife Debbie because of Debbie. And I love blue crabs because of blue crabs. And I love football because of football. You see, I don’t love all sports or all foods or all wives; man, that would get me fired in a heartbeat. My love, our love is object-centered. But I’ll tell you, that’s not the case with God. Since, according to John, God is love [1 John 4:8a, CEV], God loves us because of God and not because of us. God loves, because that’s what God is. And I’ll tell you, that’s why Paul could write this to the Romans: 

In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us. I am sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord! [Romans 8:37-39, CEV]

You see, we need to remember that God chose to love us. That’s one. 

And two, he also chose to set us apart as his own special and holy people. In other words, we no longer belong to the world, which means we no longer have to accept its assumptions nor to adopt its values. No sir, we belong to God. We are his people. I’ll tell you, it’s like Paul wrote, again to the Romans: 

Whether we live or die, it must be for God, rather than for ourselves. Whether we live or die, it must be for the Lord. Alive or dead, we still belong to the Lord. This is because Christ died and rose to life, so that he would be the Lord of the dead and of the living. [Romans 14:7-9, CEV] 

You see, the one who chooses to love us has also set us apart as his own people.

And according to what Paul wrote to Colossians, just knowing that can not only change us but also change our fellowship with one another. For example, when we accept this, when we believe it, that’s going to challenge us to be sympathetic to one another, using the actual words of Paul, to be more “gentle, kind, humble, meek, and patient.” [Colossians 3:12b, CEV] 

But that’s not all; it’ll also challenge us to be more forgiving, more willing to put up with one another and to forgive others just like Christ has forgiven us. But again, that’s not all. By focusing on how God feels about us and what he’s done for us, man, I believe that challenges us to more loving ourselves. Again, using what Paul actually wrote, “Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together.” [Colossians 3:14, CEV] You see, if we really accept that God chose to love us and to make us special, we’ll be changed and our fellowship will be strengthened. And that’s the first thing we can remember.

And second, again based on what Paul wrote, God chose to unite us and make us the Body of Christ. Again, just listen to what he said this to the Colossians:

Each one of you is part of the body of Christ, and you were chosen to live together in peace. So let the peace that comes from Christ control your thoughts. And be grateful. Let the message about Christ completely fill your lives, while you use all your wisdom to teach and instruct each other. With thankful hearts, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. Whatever you say or do should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks to God the Father because of him. [Colossians 3:15-17, CEV]

Now that’s what Paul wrote.

And just like I said a little while ago about how God chose to love us and to make us his special people, I’ll tell you, I think this is important too. I mean, for reasons we may never understand, God unites us. As a matter of fact, I believe he brought us together on this day to this spot. But even broader than that, God has decided to bring all Christians together into this new community. It’s like Peter wrote in his first letter:

But you are God’s chosen and special people. You are a group of royal priests and a holy nation. God has brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now you must tell all the wonderful things that he has done. The Scriptures say,

“Once you were nobody.

    Now you are God’s people.

At one time no one

    had pity on you.

Now God has treated you

    with kindness. [1 Peter 2:9-10, CEV]

Now this is what God has done and will continue to do. And as this group of royal priests and this holy nation, we represent God’s presence on earth in a tangible way. You see, we’ve become the Body of Christ, something that Paul must have understood when he wrote this to the Corinthians: Together you are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of his body. [1 Corinthians 12:27, CEV] You see, by God’s choice, we’ve been united, and we’ve become the body of Christ.

And just like trusting that we are loved and have been set apart invites us to change, I believe this reality can too. You see, one, when we believe that God has united us and made his own body, I think that challenges us to become more peaceful, in other word, more focused on living in peace with one another than in insisting on our own way. I guess you could say that when Paul said that the peace which comes from Christ should control our thoughts, he was pretty much telling us that we probably shouldn’t be running around, acting like a bunch of Karens. Peace should really be our goal. That’s one. And two, I also think an awareness of what God has done for us challenges us to be more grateful, but not just for what God has done for me, rather, for what has done for us and what we can do for one another. That’s two. And finally, just trusting in this divine unity, man, I believe that challenges us to be more focused. You see, as the Body of Christ, called by God and inspired by the Spirit, we can focus on not just the work we’ve been called to do but also the praise and worship we’ve been called to offer. My gosh, we’re loved by the creator of the universe and we have one another. And I’ll tell you, if that’s all we’ve got, man, we have good reason for singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. You see, by accepting that God chose to unite us and to make us the Body of Christ, that’ll change us too and strengthen our fellowship. And that’s the second thing we can remember.

And you know, having said all that, although it sure wasn’t intended, I think today is the perfect Sunday for a message about maintaining fellowship with believers. I mean, not only are we going to have some fellowship over soup and salads in just a little bit, but the game itself sort of reenforces what we’ve been saying. You see, by their play on the field, both the Bengals and the Rams were chosen to represent their conferences in the Super Bowl. And I think their ability to play will improve when they recognize that they really are special and feel a sense of unity as they take the field. In fact, in my opinion, those things may be so important that they might determine who’s going to win and who’s going to start looking forward to next year.

And you know, that’s sort of what God has done for us. You see, God has chosen to love us and to make us special, something that I believe challenges us to be more sympathetic and more forgiving and more loving. And he’s also chosen to unite us and to make us the Body of Christ, something that can challenge us to be more peaceful and more grateful and more focused. You see, by just remembering that we’ve been chosen by God and by allowing that reality to shape our actions and attitudes, I’m telling you, I think it’ll strengthen our fellowship with believers.