Church of the Nazarene – East Rock
Learning & Unlearning: Community
Learning and Unlearning Part 4
John 17:20-21
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
Of all the things Jesus could have chosen in that moment, he prayed for unity, for communion and fellowship.
If it was important enough for Jesus to consider in the hours before his death, are we willing to re-consider the importance of our relational intimacy?
Welcome back to our teaching series “Learning and Un-learning”
Our series began by understanding that our message does not change, but the way in which it is communicated MUST change if we are to be successful in our call to reach our world.
The point of this series is that we want to see how we are to live out the timeless truths of scripture in our ever-changing world.
We have seen throughout this series that we are to share in Jesus’ heart, and his call to be a compassionate and peacemaking presence in our world.
Today as we finish up our series, we want to be honest about our tendency as believers to scatter- to be staunchly self-sufficient and self-reliant
Sadly, the pandemic gave us an excuse to disconnect. -And that’s a word that should never describe God’s children.
What Jesus prayed for us in John 17 is more than sitting beside one another on Sunday’s, it’s having true connection to each other through Christ.1 John 1:1-4That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
Fellowship in this passage is the Greek word Koinonia.
Fellowship or koinonia- when John carefully chose that word, he was not thinking of pot-luck dinners, (unfortunately).It’s not just sharing the same room on Sunday mornings, it’s not even the casual “How’s work going?” interactions that we often have. It’s much, much, more than that.In fact, if you really understood the depth of that word – koinonia – it might, frankly, make you just a little uncomfortable.
Koinonia is about sharing personal, intimate, depth and meaning with fellow believers. It is a sharing of value and purpose. It is a sharing of resources as well as responsibility. It’s shared common life together.
Koinonia, fellowship is what the disciples had when the Holy spirit came at Pentecost in Acts 2Acts 2:42 – 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
The coming of the Holy Spirit here in acts brings the first mention of koinonia, of fellowship at this kind of level. This reveals and affirms the truth that John gives in our passage, that it is only through Christ that we can have this kind of relationship with other believers.
1 John 1:5-7
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Since God is absolutely free of sin and darkness, if we continue to choose sin, we continue to choose our own way- we don’t actually have fellowship with him.
But if we will esteem Christ above all- choosing him over ourselves- we have his life in us- and we share that life with others, and Christ cleanses us from the sinful nature that’s within us.
Sin and the serving of self are the ultimate disruption to true intimacy with God and with one another.
We must give ourselves to learning what it is to hold our intimacy in Christ as THE single most important factor in how we relate to other believers.
We must un-learn the ways of categorizing each other and learn what it is to live into our given unity in Christ Jesus.
After all, we ARE ONE in Christ.
Verses for further study/reflection:
Acts 2:42
Romans 15:26
1 Corinthians 1:9
1 Corinthians 10:16
1 Corinthians 10:16
2 Corinthians 6:14
2 Corinthians 8:4
2 Corinthians 9:13
2 Corinthians 13:14
Galatians 2:9
Ephesians 3:9
Philippians 1:5
Philippians 2:1
Philippians 3:10
Philemon 1:6
Hebrews 13:16
1 John 1:3
1 John 1:6
1 John 1:7