The Nature Of Our Fellowship
The Nature Of Our Fellowship
Kane McNally, prepared for Sunday Bible study,
19 September 2010
Transcription of recording, slightly edited
This morning we will consider the questions, ‘What is the nature of our fellowship that we find here among the brethren?’ and ‘What is our own religion or righteousness that is our own?’ Phil 3:9. I have been waiting on the Lord this week, and feel He is going to activate among us a certain dynamic which we read of in the book of Hebrews. ‘For the word of God is living and active [it’s living and active] and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.’ Heb 4:12,13.
So, as I speak today, my faith is that the Lord wants to have His word living, active and sharp towards us to lay open and bare where we are in relation to Him today.
What is fellowship?
The apostle John says, ‘What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ’.1
What is fellowship? We know that when we seek to understand how to live life we need to look at how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live together. That is the fellowship we are joining, so we need to know how it works. We know the Father, Son and Holy Spirit meet one another –They meet. They meet in the truth of Their identity, and They appreciate one another in loving relationship.
Is that a reflection of how you lived in your family this week? Appreciating the other, the uniqueness of the other? Who has some unique people in their family? I do!
Giving and receiving of His life
So back to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each one is giving and receiving life according to Their unique identity. There is capacity to give and receive life. They don’t have to be doing anything, They don’t have to be in activity, They don’t have to be busy doing a task, They are just simply being in unique identity.
1. 1John 1:3
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit can just be and meet, enjoy and appreciate and minister life. They give and receive of Their life to one another.
Meet according to the truth
A key point is that They meet according to the truth of who They are. We can aspire to have a certain image of ourselves. Because of our anxieties, we contrive to be something that will be acceptable, but that is not how we meet in true fellowship, is it? We meet according to the truth of who we are – according to Christ’s word about us.
I am meeting you according to that truth. I can’t meet you unless you are being true to the name He has given you. Neither can you meet and appreciate me unless I am being true to my naming in Christ. Is that true? That is true fellowship, isn’t it? New creation people meeting in Christ’s word and connected to a local community. Meeting and appreciating, giving and receiving life – this is fellowship together.
An invitation to join fellowship
Eternal, incorruptible love is Their fellowship. God’s life is incorruptible and eternal. God’s word is His invitation to us. Let’s just get this into perspective. God’s word breaks in so that we may participate in fellowship. It is His invitation to us, who are born in darkness, to join in fellowship with Him. We are born in darkness. We are not born into BCF as good ‘sonseekers’ who then proceed to grow as teenagers who are automatically in fellowship. We actually are found to be in darkness before Him. His word is an invitation to join and participate in fellowship with Him.
The apostle John, who had joined this fellowship, proclaimed God’s word to us so that we can fellowship with him and with God. John was not speaking a word as an isolated person, but as someone connected into this same fellowship. John was of the fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then, he became someone who could call others to join that same fellowship.
It is the same for us. If we are of this fellowship we can participate in it and call others to join it. As we evangelise we need to know what we are calling people to. First, we must be saved, connected properly and established in fellowship. We must be connected to His life.
Fellowship activates God’s life
Fellowship activates God’s life towards us. His life, His gospel word, is only activated in fellowship. Fellowship is both the pathway by which we join relationship with God, and is relationship with God. It’s the pathway and it is relationship with Him. Fellowship, then, is the relationship of God and man together in spirit. Fellowship is found with our brothers and sisters, our brethren who worship God in our local community, and the wider body of Christ.
A love of the truth
Now this is a key point. As we obey His word, not isolated in our own religious good, but connected in fellowship, meeting and appreciating the truth of who we are, we receive from Him a love of the truth.
A love of the truth is something that we receive from Him, we don’t have it already. Have you received a love of the truth or are you locked up in your own religious rights and wrongs? Are you believing another truth? Has your truth now become a lie? The truth of fellowship – people fellowshipping together in loving appreciation of God’s life – is that we can only hear God’s word in that fellowship. There is no other word, there is nothing else motivating us. It is in this fellowship here – these people, these brothers and sisters – that God’s truth is proclaimed to us, about us. Now, we may regularly attend meetings in this church, but may not be those who are of His fellowship. We must join the fellowship of the apostles and the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The truth will set you free
God speaks to us in fellowship and through those in fellowship. In fellowship we can weigh up what is true. Who has ever been helped in fellowship, weighing up together what is true? ‘The truth will set you free.’ John 8:32. Has the truth set you free? That is the question we are asking today.
Only in fellowship are we cleansed from sin. ‘If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.’ 1 John1:7. Is that our testimony – we are being cleansed from sin? We are being healed from the mechanisms of our own law.
Healed – that’s a testimony.
As I meet and relate with you, my own perceptions and sight can be put off and I can receive a love of the truth, and we can meet. I am being healed from having my own sight in relation to my own perceptions. The truth is setting me free. It is healing me from the law of my own mind – the religious mind. We are being healed from having our own sight. Our own sight isn’t the truth revealed in
fellowship. Our worries, our concerns, our neurotic tendencies are healed when we obey the truth found in this fellowship.
Fellowship in offering
What about the way we make offering? Our sight is being healed in relation to offering so that we can begin to reveal another person. Christ didn’t come to do His own will but He revealed the Father in everything He did. He revealed the Father. Are you working in a service team, fellowshipping with brothers and sisters and learning how to reveal one another in the work you are doing? That is a capacity that only comes in fellowship, and it comes to multiply the fellowship, so that we can all be of one spirit, doing the work the Father has intended.
Are you finding that testimony among this people? We can have full initiative in identity, but all this is given to reveal someone else in fellowship.
Freely, we are able to appreciate and meet one another. Can we just meet freely and appreciate one another? That is fellowship.
Meeting in New Creation
Let’s broaden our understanding of fellowship to an understanding of who we are when we meet together. Fellowship is real wherever we meet in the new creation. Isn’t that wonderful? Obviously then, we can’t have fellowship at the movies. There is another culture and agenda there. But when you come around for a meal, we share, we meet, our sight is being healed, we are ministering one to another. I’m appreciating you. We sing, and just appreciate one another as part of the fellowship of the apostles in the local area and of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the beginning of the life we live now and forevermore. This becomes our whole motivation for life. Koinonia, fellowship, should be who we are all the time, wherever we are, as we meet one another.
What fellowship is not
Let’s move onto what fellowship is not. Today, I am not comparing true fellowship with the socialising and mateship culture of the world. But rather comparing true fellowship with the deception that comes when we attend church without obedience to His word about us. The Lord is bringing His sword down. His word is sharp to divide between our own religious ways – a righteousness of our own – and His fellowship. Of what spirit are you today? Our religious ways are those laws within us by which we live – our vain traditions, as regular church attendees, that lead to death. For the moment we will lean to the negative and call these 'religious ways'.
Perhaps you think of the Pharisees in Jesus’ time as those people out of touch with Christ and His word. However, those Pharisees saw themselves as God’s servants. They knew His Scriptures and kept all the laws of Moses, God’s messenger. They were obedient to the letter of the law and didn’t, as they saw it, wilfully sin or join wickedness.
Christ, however, revealed the truth of the matter. They were hypocrites, they made a good showing in the flesh, but their motivations were evil and led to death. This is quite stark, isn’t it? ‘Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honours Me with their lips but their heart is far away from Me”.’ Mark 7:6. ‘You hypocrites! You know how to analyse the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyse this present time?’ Luke 12:56.
The present truth word was that Christ the Messiah was there to be fellowshipped with. They opposed this present truth word. ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.’ Matt 23:27.
A righteousness of our own
Is there potential in us to be religious, and being found having a righteousness of our own? Is it the reason for not coming to love, to meet, to appreciate in this local community as God does? In the end we choose one or the other – fellowship with God or isolation in a righteousness of our own. Our only hope for deliverance from this deception is to receive a love of the truth so as to be saved.
Confidence in the flesh
Paul said, in effect, ‘If anyone has confidence in the flesh, I am happy to go ‘one on one’ with him to compare’.2 He said, ‘We are the true circumcision ... and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless [Is that how you find yourself this morning – completely right in your own eyes?]. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.’3 He even brought family into it; the pedigree of our family. Just because we are in a particular family doesn’t mean that we have fellowship either, does it?
Believing a lie
My religious ways say, ‘I have no sin, I do not want fellowship because someone might see through my whitewashed presentation’. We must receive a love of the truth. ‘The one [antichrist] whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness, for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth’. 2 Thess 2:9.
So, we are either going to be found in fellowship with the brethren, or we are going to be of antichrist. It is just as simple as that. Let’s be careful how we are living our life now because the Lord activates either way. He is activating to a fellowship to see us cleansed and healed, or He is sending a delusion so that we believe what is false. We believe the lie. The lie is that you can achieve the same life of His fellowship in your own flesh without joining and aligning yourself to His fellowship – that is the lie.
Saul’s conversion
Before his conversion, Saul was deluded and believed a lie. ‘Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus [so he is going a fair way, isn’t he? He is a motivated sort of fellow], so that if he found any belonging to the Way [Christians], both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was travelling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”.’ Acts 9:1-4.
An opportunity for fellowship
Straight away there is an opportunity here for fellowship. Christ calls Saul by name, ‘Saul, Saul’, and then in that fellowship that Christ is establishing, He proclaims the truth of who Saul is, in relation to Him at that time. What does He say? ‘You are persecuting Me. Why are you persecuting Me?’ Saul replies to this effect, ‘But I’ve been doing Your will, I’ve been rounding up all these wicked people who say the Messiah has already come, and I’ve been throwing them in prison. I was there when Stephen was stoned and I was in hearty agreement with it’.
This is the line the Lord is drawing this morning, and He wants to divide. Are you of His fellowship, established in His fellowship, or are you going to be
one who is a persecutor of the true church, one who is stuck in religious ways and vain traditions?
‘I am Jesus [He identifies Himself] whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city and it will be told you what you must do.’ Acts 9:5,6. Straight away there is a pathway forward. There is a pathway forward in fellowship. Are you understanding how this all works?
Finding a pathway forward
So, we find out who we are in relation to the Lord, and there is a pathway forward for us in this fellowship. ‘The men who travelled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open he could see nothing.’ Acts 9:7,8. As he met Christ, he was found convicted of blindness. He was found convicted of his own sight, his own religious ways in which he’d been walking, according to the law. In fellowship he was found to be blind. ‘And leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.’ Acts 9:8,9.
Now during this time Saul had been in prayer. This morning, as the Holy Spirit is convicting us, if He is, there is an opportunity to begin to pray. Our prayers are as incense to the Lord, ascending to Him as a memorial, and He remembers us as His word is breaking in as light. Maybe He is knocking you off your ‘religious high-horse’, or your humble little ‘religious donkey’. He wants to meet you and He is saying to you, ‘begin to pray even now’. The Lord answers our memorial prayer, as it ascends to Him, doesn’t He? He answers us! So He sent a messenger to Saul.
‘Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord [so He already has fellowship with Ananias]”. And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight”. But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem”.’ Acts 9:10-13.
Ananias was ‘up to scratch’ with the truth of who Saul was in relation to him – ‘I need to avoid that guy at all costs.’ Would that be true? But the Lord was saying, ‘No! It’s time to be a messenger to this man, to join him to Our fellowship’. Sometimes, as we are bringing an opportunity for fellowship, it can seem quite frightening to approach someone who is so religiously zealous.
Suffering to obtain testimony
Saul had authority from the chief priests. He had gone ‘straight to the top’. ‘And the Lord said to him [Ananias], “Go [and He confesses Saul’s name here to Ananias. So, in fellowship it is clear and sharp what your name is. You can know the truth of that name], for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name [he is going to bear Christ’s testimony before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel] for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake”.’ Acts 9:15,16. Paul is going to find out that he must suffer to obtain testimony from Christ. Testimony is found in fellowship. Isn’t that wonderful?
‘So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him, said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight”.’ Acts 9:17. Do you think he was going to regain only his physical sight? No, he was going to regain his spiritual sight. He was going to receive sight! He’d been praying for three days.
Our understanding realigned
This man had understood all of the law up until this time and now everything had changed. Through prayer, before the Lord, he had to realign his whole understanding. His whole capacity to reason was now completely redefined before the Lord so that he could fulfil the will of God in fellowship. His whole religious mindset had to be healed and realigned so that he could present himself as a living sacrifice. Rom 12:1
A complete realignment
Is this our testimony? Are we part of this fellowship, converted to now walk this way? Is this our ongoing testimony to be established in this fellowship where we are hearing the truth from our brothers and sisters and walking obediently?
‘ “[He] has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight.’ Acts 9:17,18. He regained his physical sight. He was then given the sight to walk out his full predestination as Ananias was telling Saul what he would need to suffer for the Lord’s name’s sake. Saul is having to see this and say ‘Yes I will obey your word to me’. Brothers in fellowship can meet and step forward together confidently, knowing that His grace is sufficient to walk this predestination out fully. This is wonderful, isn’t it?
Paul was then filled with the Holy Spirit. ‘And he got up and was baptised; and he took food and was strengthened.’ Acts 9:18,19. Straight away, in fellowship, Saul is healed of his blindness. He is healed of his mechanisms of law. He is now able to be baptised, filled with the Holy Spirit, and then, in fellowship, eat food and be strengthened.
A testimony of full conversion
Straight away, what do we see Paul doing? He is preaching the word. He is proclaiming Christ in every place. He would have been proclaiming the word to the men who had just come down from Jerusalem with him; the Jews, who still didn’t believe the Messiah had come. This Paul, the persecutor of the church, is now completely changed. He is converted. His whole dynamic for life has changed. He is now only interested in fellowship, to remain in fellowship and to multiply the fellowship, and to see other people brought in to that same fellowship. All this because he had a wonderful testimony of a full conversion in Christ. Is this our testimony today?
Have you received a love of the truth: the truth about who He is and how His gospel works? We receive a love of the truth from Him. Has He poured in something you didn’t have before, a capacity you didn’t have before; to love how His gospel works, to love to stay in fellowship, to have our sins cleansed with our brothers, to be found as a sinner before Christ? The person with a religious mindset does not acknowledge their sinfulness but rather they believe a lie.
The joy of participation
‘What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.’ 1 John 1:3,4. That is the joy of our participation in His fellowship.
That is what the apostles were interested in. Their whole motivation in life was to be in fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the brethren in the local community and the wider body of Christ. Their desire was to join everyone, who was called, to become a part of that fellowship, also.
Established in fellowship
Are you a part of that fellowship? Or are you just a regular attendee of this church? Do you have a testimony of conversion and being established as part of the fellowship of the believers here in this place? The Holy Spirit is convicting us today.
‘This is the message we have heard from Him and announce 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 practice 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. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins [to our brothers and sisters in Christ], He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.’
Restoration Fellowships International
1 John 1:5-10. His word is not in us if that is our mode. It’s as simple as that!
A pathway forward
So, begin to pray, if you have been convicted of the truth of this matter this morning in relation to your fellowship in Him. There is a pathway forward within that fellowship. If you pray to the Lord, even now, He will answer you, and your response this morning will be to proceed forward, to be established in fellowship, converted from your own religious ways, where the Lord pours delusion upon you. A deluding influence comes upon us so that we believe a lie and are opposed to the truth. We then are motivated according to the workings of Satan and become a multiplier of a different fellowship – the fellowship of a lie. We know where that ends up.
Are you going to be an evangelist of His word, in your local community, to draw others into the fellowship we share or are you going to draw them into your religion, your own rightness, your own ways? The Scriptures warn us of that. Mat 23:15
Are you ‘foggy’ today, wrestling to reconcile your religious ways with what I am saying? The present truth word cuts in and tells you the truth. Don’t try to reconcile it in your mind, just let the truth be the truth, and find a pathway forward in fellowship. I like to think of fogginess as darkness. In the light there is no darkness at all. In fellowship there is no need for darkness, or fogginess, or uncertainty. If we are obedient to His word we can simply know the truth of who we are in Him.
19 September 2010
Transcription of recording, slightly edited
This morning we will consider the questions, ‘What is the nature of our fellowship that we find here among the brethren?’ and ‘What is our own religion or righteousness that is our own?’ Phil 3:9. I have been waiting on the Lord this week, and feel He is going to activate among us a certain dynamic which we read of in the book of Hebrews. ‘For the word of God is living and active [it’s living and active] and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.’ Heb 4:12,13.
So, as I speak today, my faith is that the Lord wants to have His word living, active and sharp towards us to lay open and bare where we are in relation to Him today.
What is fellowship?
The apostle John says, ‘What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ’.1
What is fellowship? We know that when we seek to understand how to live life we need to look at how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live together. That is the fellowship we are joining, so we need to know how it works. We know the Father, Son and Holy Spirit meet one another –They meet. They meet in the truth of Their identity, and They appreciate one another in loving relationship.
Is that a reflection of how you lived in your family this week? Appreciating the other, the uniqueness of the other? Who has some unique people in their family? I do!
Giving and receiving of His life
So back to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each one is giving and receiving life according to Their unique identity. There is capacity to give and receive life. They don’t have to be doing anything, They don’t have to be in activity, They don’t have to be busy doing a task, They are just simply being in unique identity.
1. 1John 1:3
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit can just be and meet, enjoy and appreciate and minister life. They give and receive of Their life to one another.
Meet according to the truth
A key point is that They meet according to the truth of who They are. We can aspire to have a certain image of ourselves. Because of our anxieties, we contrive to be something that will be acceptable, but that is not how we meet in true fellowship, is it? We meet according to the truth of who we are – according to Christ’s word about us.
I am meeting you according to that truth. I can’t meet you unless you are being true to the name He has given you. Neither can you meet and appreciate me unless I am being true to my naming in Christ. Is that true? That is true fellowship, isn’t it? New creation people meeting in Christ’s word and connected to a local community. Meeting and appreciating, giving and receiving life – this is fellowship together.
An invitation to join fellowship
Eternal, incorruptible love is Their fellowship. God’s life is incorruptible and eternal. God’s word is His invitation to us. Let’s just get this into perspective. God’s word breaks in so that we may participate in fellowship. It is His invitation to us, who are born in darkness, to join in fellowship with Him. We are born in darkness. We are not born into BCF as good ‘sonseekers’ who then proceed to grow as teenagers who are automatically in fellowship. We actually are found to be in darkness before Him. His word is an invitation to join and participate in fellowship with Him.
The apostle John, who had joined this fellowship, proclaimed God’s word to us so that we can fellowship with him and with God. John was not speaking a word as an isolated person, but as someone connected into this same fellowship. John was of the fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then, he became someone who could call others to join that same fellowship.
It is the same for us. If we are of this fellowship we can participate in it and call others to join it. As we evangelise we need to know what we are calling people to. First, we must be saved, connected properly and established in fellowship. We must be connected to His life.
Fellowship activates God’s life
Fellowship activates God’s life towards us. His life, His gospel word, is only activated in fellowship. Fellowship is both the pathway by which we join relationship with God, and is relationship with God. It’s the pathway and it is relationship with Him. Fellowship, then, is the relationship of God and man together in spirit. Fellowship is found with our brothers and sisters, our brethren who worship God in our local community, and the wider body of Christ.
A love of the truth
Now this is a key point. As we obey His word, not isolated in our own religious good, but connected in fellowship, meeting and appreciating the truth of who we are, we receive from Him a love of the truth.
A love of the truth is something that we receive from Him, we don’t have it already. Have you received a love of the truth or are you locked up in your own religious rights and wrongs? Are you believing another truth? Has your truth now become a lie? The truth of fellowship – people fellowshipping together in loving appreciation of God’s life – is that we can only hear God’s word in that fellowship. There is no other word, there is nothing else motivating us. It is in this fellowship here – these people, these brothers and sisters – that God’s truth is proclaimed to us, about us. Now, we may regularly attend meetings in this church, but may not be those who are of His fellowship. We must join the fellowship of the apostles and the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The truth will set you free
God speaks to us in fellowship and through those in fellowship. In fellowship we can weigh up what is true. Who has ever been helped in fellowship, weighing up together what is true? ‘The truth will set you free.’ John 8:32. Has the truth set you free? That is the question we are asking today.
Only in fellowship are we cleansed from sin. ‘If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.’ 1 John1:7. Is that our testimony – we are being cleansed from sin? We are being healed from the mechanisms of our own law.
Healed – that’s a testimony.
As I meet and relate with you, my own perceptions and sight can be put off and I can receive a love of the truth, and we can meet. I am being healed from having my own sight in relation to my own perceptions. The truth is setting me free. It is healing me from the law of my own mind – the religious mind. We are being healed from having our own sight. Our own sight isn’t the truth revealed in
fellowship. Our worries, our concerns, our neurotic tendencies are healed when we obey the truth found in this fellowship.
Fellowship in offering
What about the way we make offering? Our sight is being healed in relation to offering so that we can begin to reveal another person. Christ didn’t come to do His own will but He revealed the Father in everything He did. He revealed the Father. Are you working in a service team, fellowshipping with brothers and sisters and learning how to reveal one another in the work you are doing? That is a capacity that only comes in fellowship, and it comes to multiply the fellowship, so that we can all be of one spirit, doing the work the Father has intended.
Are you finding that testimony among this people? We can have full initiative in identity, but all this is given to reveal someone else in fellowship.
Freely, we are able to appreciate and meet one another. Can we just meet freely and appreciate one another? That is fellowship.
Meeting in New Creation
Let’s broaden our understanding of fellowship to an understanding of who we are when we meet together. Fellowship is real wherever we meet in the new creation. Isn’t that wonderful? Obviously then, we can’t have fellowship at the movies. There is another culture and agenda there. But when you come around for a meal, we share, we meet, our sight is being healed, we are ministering one to another. I’m appreciating you. We sing, and just appreciate one another as part of the fellowship of the apostles in the local area and of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the beginning of the life we live now and forevermore. This becomes our whole motivation for life. Koinonia, fellowship, should be who we are all the time, wherever we are, as we meet one another.
What fellowship is not
Let’s move onto what fellowship is not. Today, I am not comparing true fellowship with the socialising and mateship culture of the world. But rather comparing true fellowship with the deception that comes when we attend church without obedience to His word about us. The Lord is bringing His sword down. His word is sharp to divide between our own religious ways – a righteousness of our own – and His fellowship. Of what spirit are you today? Our religious ways are those laws within us by which we live – our vain traditions, as regular church attendees, that lead to death. For the moment we will lean to the negative and call these 'religious ways'.
Perhaps you think of the Pharisees in Jesus’ time as those people out of touch with Christ and His word. However, those Pharisees saw themselves as God’s servants. They knew His Scriptures and kept all the laws of Moses, God’s messenger. They were obedient to the letter of the law and didn’t, as they saw it, wilfully sin or join wickedness.
Christ, however, revealed the truth of the matter. They were hypocrites, they made a good showing in the flesh, but their motivations were evil and led to death. This is quite stark, isn’t it? ‘Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honours Me with their lips but their heart is far away from Me”.’ Mark 7:6. ‘You hypocrites! You know how to analyse the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyse this present time?’ Luke 12:56.
The present truth word was that Christ the Messiah was there to be fellowshipped with. They opposed this present truth word. ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.’ Matt 23:27.
A righteousness of our own
Is there potential in us to be religious, and being found having a righteousness of our own? Is it the reason for not coming to love, to meet, to appreciate in this local community as God does? In the end we choose one or the other – fellowship with God or isolation in a righteousness of our own. Our only hope for deliverance from this deception is to receive a love of the truth so as to be saved.
Confidence in the flesh
Paul said, in effect, ‘If anyone has confidence in the flesh, I am happy to go ‘one on one’ with him to compare’.2 He said, ‘We are the true circumcision ... and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless [Is that how you find yourself this morning – completely right in your own eyes?]. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.’3 He even brought family into it; the pedigree of our family. Just because we are in a particular family doesn’t mean that we have fellowship either, does it?
Believing a lie
My religious ways say, ‘I have no sin, I do not want fellowship because someone might see through my whitewashed presentation’. We must receive a love of the truth. ‘The one [antichrist] whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness, for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth’. 2 Thess 2:9.
So, we are either going to be found in fellowship with the brethren, or we are going to be of antichrist. It is just as simple as that. Let’s be careful how we are living our life now because the Lord activates either way. He is activating to a fellowship to see us cleansed and healed, or He is sending a delusion so that we believe what is false. We believe the lie. The lie is that you can achieve the same life of His fellowship in your own flesh without joining and aligning yourself to His fellowship – that is the lie.
Saul’s conversion
Before his conversion, Saul was deluded and believed a lie. ‘Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus [so he is going a fair way, isn’t he? He is a motivated sort of fellow], so that if he found any belonging to the Way [Christians], both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was travelling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”.’ Acts 9:1-4.
An opportunity for fellowship
Straight away there is an opportunity here for fellowship. Christ calls Saul by name, ‘Saul, Saul’, and then in that fellowship that Christ is establishing, He proclaims the truth of who Saul is, in relation to Him at that time. What does He say? ‘You are persecuting Me. Why are you persecuting Me?’ Saul replies to this effect, ‘But I’ve been doing Your will, I’ve been rounding up all these wicked people who say the Messiah has already come, and I’ve been throwing them in prison. I was there when Stephen was stoned and I was in hearty agreement with it’.
This is the line the Lord is drawing this morning, and He wants to divide. Are you of His fellowship, established in His fellowship, or are you going to be
one who is a persecutor of the true church, one who is stuck in religious ways and vain traditions?
‘I am Jesus [He identifies Himself] whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city and it will be told you what you must do.’ Acts 9:5,6. Straight away there is a pathway forward. There is a pathway forward in fellowship. Are you understanding how this all works?
Finding a pathway forward
So, we find out who we are in relation to the Lord, and there is a pathway forward for us in this fellowship. ‘The men who travelled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open he could see nothing.’ Acts 9:7,8. As he met Christ, he was found convicted of blindness. He was found convicted of his own sight, his own religious ways in which he’d been walking, according to the law. In fellowship he was found to be blind. ‘And leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.’ Acts 9:8,9.
Now during this time Saul had been in prayer. This morning, as the Holy Spirit is convicting us, if He is, there is an opportunity to begin to pray. Our prayers are as incense to the Lord, ascending to Him as a memorial, and He remembers us as His word is breaking in as light. Maybe He is knocking you off your ‘religious high-horse’, or your humble little ‘religious donkey’. He wants to meet you and He is saying to you, ‘begin to pray even now’. The Lord answers our memorial prayer, as it ascends to Him, doesn’t He? He answers us! So He sent a messenger to Saul.
‘Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord [so He already has fellowship with Ananias]”. And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight”. But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem”.’ Acts 9:10-13.
Ananias was ‘up to scratch’ with the truth of who Saul was in relation to him – ‘I need to avoid that guy at all costs.’ Would that be true? But the Lord was saying, ‘No! It’s time to be a messenger to this man, to join him to Our fellowship’. Sometimes, as we are bringing an opportunity for fellowship, it can seem quite frightening to approach someone who is so religiously zealous.
Suffering to obtain testimony
Saul had authority from the chief priests. He had gone ‘straight to the top’. ‘And the Lord said to him [Ananias], “Go [and He confesses Saul’s name here to Ananias. So, in fellowship it is clear and sharp what your name is. You can know the truth of that name], for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name [he is going to bear Christ’s testimony before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel] for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake”.’ Acts 9:15,16. Paul is going to find out that he must suffer to obtain testimony from Christ. Testimony is found in fellowship. Isn’t that wonderful?
‘So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him, said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight”.’ Acts 9:17. Do you think he was going to regain only his physical sight? No, he was going to regain his spiritual sight. He was going to receive sight! He’d been praying for three days.
Our understanding realigned
This man had understood all of the law up until this time and now everything had changed. Through prayer, before the Lord, he had to realign his whole understanding. His whole capacity to reason was now completely redefined before the Lord so that he could fulfil the will of God in fellowship. His whole religious mindset had to be healed and realigned so that he could present himself as a living sacrifice. Rom 12:1
A complete realignment
Is this our testimony? Are we part of this fellowship, converted to now walk this way? Is this our ongoing testimony to be established in this fellowship where we are hearing the truth from our brothers and sisters and walking obediently?
‘ “[He] has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight.’ Acts 9:17,18. He regained his physical sight. He was then given the sight to walk out his full predestination as Ananias was telling Saul what he would need to suffer for the Lord’s name’s sake. Saul is having to see this and say ‘Yes I will obey your word to me’. Brothers in fellowship can meet and step forward together confidently, knowing that His grace is sufficient to walk this predestination out fully. This is wonderful, isn’t it?
Paul was then filled with the Holy Spirit. ‘And he got up and was baptised; and he took food and was strengthened.’ Acts 9:18,19. Straight away, in fellowship, Saul is healed of his blindness. He is healed of his mechanisms of law. He is now able to be baptised, filled with the Holy Spirit, and then, in fellowship, eat food and be strengthened.
A testimony of full conversion
Straight away, what do we see Paul doing? He is preaching the word. He is proclaiming Christ in every place. He would have been proclaiming the word to the men who had just come down from Jerusalem with him; the Jews, who still didn’t believe the Messiah had come. This Paul, the persecutor of the church, is now completely changed. He is converted. His whole dynamic for life has changed. He is now only interested in fellowship, to remain in fellowship and to multiply the fellowship, and to see other people brought in to that same fellowship. All this because he had a wonderful testimony of a full conversion in Christ. Is this our testimony today?
Have you received a love of the truth: the truth about who He is and how His gospel works? We receive a love of the truth from Him. Has He poured in something you didn’t have before, a capacity you didn’t have before; to love how His gospel works, to love to stay in fellowship, to have our sins cleansed with our brothers, to be found as a sinner before Christ? The person with a religious mindset does not acknowledge their sinfulness but rather they believe a lie.
The joy of participation
‘What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.’ 1 John 1:3,4. That is the joy of our participation in His fellowship.
That is what the apostles were interested in. Their whole motivation in life was to be in fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the brethren in the local community and the wider body of Christ. Their desire was to join everyone, who was called, to become a part of that fellowship, also.
Established in fellowship
Are you a part of that fellowship? Or are you just a regular attendee of this church? Do you have a testimony of conversion and being established as part of the fellowship of the believers here in this place? The Holy Spirit is convicting us today.
‘This is the message we have heard from Him and announce 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 practice 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. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins [to our brothers and sisters in Christ], He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.’
Restoration Fellowships International
1 John 1:5-10. His word is not in us if that is our mode. It’s as simple as that!
A pathway forward
So, begin to pray, if you have been convicted of the truth of this matter this morning in relation to your fellowship in Him. There is a pathway forward within that fellowship. If you pray to the Lord, even now, He will answer you, and your response this morning will be to proceed forward, to be established in fellowship, converted from your own religious ways, where the Lord pours delusion upon you. A deluding influence comes upon us so that we believe a lie and are opposed to the truth. We then are motivated according to the workings of Satan and become a multiplier of a different fellowship – the fellowship of a lie. We know where that ends up.
Are you going to be an evangelist of His word, in your local community, to draw others into the fellowship we share or are you going to draw them into your religion, your own rightness, your own ways? The Scriptures warn us of that. Mat 23:15
Are you ‘foggy’ today, wrestling to reconcile your religious ways with what I am saying? The present truth word cuts in and tells you the truth. Don’t try to reconcile it in your mind, just let the truth be the truth, and find a pathway forward in fellowship. I like to think of fogginess as darkness. In the light there is no darkness at all. In fellowship there is no need for darkness, or fogginess, or uncertainty. If we are obedient to His word we can simply know the truth of who we are in Him.
Re: The Nature Of Our Fellowship
Who remembers that old song we used to sing: “He did not bring us out this far to take us back again?”
Also, who’s posting this “old manna” from 2010?
Also, who’s posting this “old manna” from 2010?
Kane McNally, prepared for Sunday Bible study,
19 September 2010
Transcription of recording, slightly edited
![Uber Geek :ugeek:](./images/smilies/icon_e_ugeek.gif)
Re: The Nature Of Our Fellowship
Look at this confession from Kane McNally in 2010:
I hope he has repented since then, along with the other leaders in the presbytery who share this confession.A deluding influence comes upon us so that we believe a lie and are opposed to the truth. We then are motivated according to the workings of Satan and become a multiplier of a different fellowship – the fellowship of a lie.
![Uber Geek :ugeek:](./images/smilies/icon_e_ugeek.gif)
Re: The Nature Of Our Fellowship
This is precisely the question many Christians have been asking VIC Hall and other xCF leaders for years.Are you going to be an evangelist of His word, in your local community, to draw others into the fellowship we share or are you going to draw them into your religion, your own rightness, your own ways?
I really pray there is a miracle soon. The twisted delusion of xCF doctrine has gone on far too long. As Moses said, “Let my people GO!”
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/gal.5.1.NKJV
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Re: The Nature Of Our Fellowship
Oh, Kane.Is that a reflection of how you lived in your family this week? Appreciating the other, the uniqueness of the other? Who has some unique people in their family? I do!
You don’t have to look far to see that “appreciating uniqueness” is not one of xCF’s virtues. That may have been the case in the early days (arguably) but now it’s pretty clear that ‘appreciating uniformity’ is the order of the day.
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Re: The Nature Of Our Fellowship
Amen! Open their eyes, Lord!If you pray to the Lord, even now, He will answer you, and your response this morning will be to proceed forward, to be established in fellowship, converted from your own religious ways, where the Lord pours delusion upon you.
Last edited by Dexter on Thu Mar 28, 2024 4:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Nature Of Our Fellowship
The quote above is almost nearly spot on; anxiety is allegedly rife within the RFI archipelago. Unfortunately, Kane has omitted some crucial information. I've tried to rewrite the paragraph below with more context:We can aspire to have a certain image of ourselves. Because of our anxieties, we contrive to be something that will be acceptable, but that is not how we meet in true fellowship, is it?
We can aspire to have a certain image of ourselves that was conferred upon us when we presented ourselves to be "named" by the presbytery. Because of a lack of true oversight due to their eyes being blinded by delusion, the elders contrive a name for us that will be acceptable within the cogs of the 'Lampshade Church' system, but this leads to anxiety as it is not the name we were given when we were "fearfully and wonderfully knit together in our mothers' wombs" (Psalm 139:13-14). The false model of "naming" exploited by RFI elders is not how we meet in true fellowship, is it?
Last edited by Dexter on Thu Mar 28, 2024 4:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
![Uber Geek :ugeek:](./images/smilies/icon_e_ugeek.gif)
Re: The Nature Of Our Fellowship
This claim has been made year after year, decade after decade and those who leave BCF no longer have ‘the truth’ so the elders proclaim.the truth found in this fellowship.
Truth is: Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
I have not left Jesus Christ. I have left a controlling, abusive group where the elders preach heresy, controlling people and destroying lives.
Re: The Nature Of Our Fellowship
And we answered, “Lord, [we] have heard from many about this man how much harm he did to Your saints at [Brisbane Christian Fellowship and its subsidiaries].”But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem”.’ Acts 9:10-13.
...Ananias was ‘up to scratch’ with the truth of who Saul was in relation to him – ‘I need to avoid that guy at all costs.’ Would that be true? But the Lord was saying, ‘No! It’s time to be a messenger to this man, to join him to Our fellowship’. Sometimes, as we are bringing an opportunity for fellowship, it can seem quite frightening to approach someone who is so religiously zealous.
![Uber Geek :ugeek:](./images/smilies/icon_e_ugeek.gif)
Re: The Nature Of Our Fellowship
Isaiah 54:1-17 NKJV
[1] “Sing, O barren, You who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, You who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate Than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. [2] “Enlarge the place of your tent, And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, And strengthen your stakes. [3] For you shall expand to the right and to the left, And your descendants will inherit the nations, And make the desolate cities inhabited. [4] “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; For you will forget the shame of your youth, And will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore. [5] For your Maker is your husband, The Lord of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth. [6] For the Lord has called you Like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, Like a youthful wife when you were refused,” Says your God. [7] “For a mere moment I have forsaken you, But with great mercies I will gather you. [8] With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,” Says the Lord, your Redeemer. [9] “For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; For as I have sworn That the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, So have I sworn That I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. [10] For the mountains shall depart And the hills be removed, But My kindness shall not depart from you, Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” Says the Lord, who has mercy on you. [11] “O you afflicted one, Tossed with tempest, and not comforted, Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems, And lay your foundations with sapphires. [12] I will make your pinnacles of rubies, Your gates of crystal, And all your walls of precious stones. [13] All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. [14] In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you. [15] Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. [16] “Behold, I have created the blacksmith Who blows the coals in the fire, Who brings forth an instrument for his work; And I have created the spoiler to destroy. [17] No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord.
https://bible.com/bible/114/isa.54.1-17.NKJV
The whole chapter is essential but I highlighted some of my favorite verses.
It's comforting to know that the accusations and judgments from BCF against me cannot and will not prosper.
I can rejoice because I am redeemed by the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth. My righteousness comes from Him and not from man-made schemes.
Jesus could have asked for thousands of angels to deliver Him from the cross, and the Father would have given them to Him. Instead, Jesus chose to drink the cup of suffering for our redemption. My suffering is a drop in the ocean by comparison. If He could despise the shame of the cross, I can forget the shame of my youth and simply be thankful for the Good News of God's salvation.
Let's keep the xCF people in our prayers this Easter as they congregate together and meet in each other's homes. Surely there will be a breakthrough and the truth will be made known and set them free. Especially pray for those who are afflicted, that they will be comforted.
[1] “Sing, O barren, You who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, You who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate Than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. [2] “Enlarge the place of your tent, And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, And strengthen your stakes. [3] For you shall expand to the right and to the left, And your descendants will inherit the nations, And make the desolate cities inhabited. [4] “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; For you will forget the shame of your youth, And will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore. [5] For your Maker is your husband, The Lord of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth. [6] For the Lord has called you Like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, Like a youthful wife when you were refused,” Says your God. [7] “For a mere moment I have forsaken you, But with great mercies I will gather you. [8] With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,” Says the Lord, your Redeemer. [9] “For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; For as I have sworn That the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, So have I sworn That I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. [10] For the mountains shall depart And the hills be removed, But My kindness shall not depart from you, Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” Says the Lord, who has mercy on you. [11] “O you afflicted one, Tossed with tempest, and not comforted, Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems, And lay your foundations with sapphires. [12] I will make your pinnacles of rubies, Your gates of crystal, And all your walls of precious stones. [13] All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. [14] In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you. [15] Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. [16] “Behold, I have created the blacksmith Who blows the coals in the fire, Who brings forth an instrument for his work; And I have created the spoiler to destroy. [17] No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord.
https://bible.com/bible/114/isa.54.1-17.NKJV
The whole chapter is essential but I highlighted some of my favorite verses.
It's comforting to know that the accusations and judgments from BCF against me cannot and will not prosper.
I can rejoice because I am redeemed by the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth. My righteousness comes from Him and not from man-made schemes.
Jesus could have asked for thousands of angels to deliver Him from the cross, and the Father would have given them to Him. Instead, Jesus chose to drink the cup of suffering for our redemption. My suffering is a drop in the ocean by comparison. If He could despise the shame of the cross, I can forget the shame of my youth and simply be thankful for the Good News of God's salvation.
Let's keep the xCF people in our prayers this Easter as they congregate together and meet in each other's homes. Surely there will be a breakthrough and the truth will be made known and set them free. Especially pray for those who are afflicted, that they will be comforted.
![Uber Geek :ugeek:](./images/smilies/icon_e_ugeek.gif)
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