Practical Issues
Fellowship
A Full Share
Giving
Suffering
Separation
Blessing
Fellowship
by Graham Jones - The Church at Gun Hill"And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." Acts 2 v 42.
Fellowship of Suffering
Let us move on to see that fellowship is also a fellowship of suffering. This really sounds gloomy - giving away all that I have and then the fellowship of suffering. Where is the good news in all this? It is part of being in the Body of Christ. The suffering is an extension of meeting the needs, because people who are in need are people who are suffering. In I Peter 4 v 13, Peter says, "But rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers (fellowshippers) of Christ's suffering; that when His glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy." There is a fellowship in Christ's sufferings, a sharing in common with Christ His sufferings, because he was and still is the rejected One. Although we are in Him and accept Him, and He accepts us and we are accepted in the Beloved, yet, because the world rejects Him, the world will also reject us if we are in Him. Jesus said that we should not marvel that the world hates us because it hated Him first. This age of Grace in which we live is also the night of His rejection.Persecution
"Yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (II Timothy 3 v 12) Persecution can take a variety of forms. It may be physical, mental, psychological, and so on. We live in a country where the pressures tend to be psychological. We get embarrassed. There is that sort of persecution. People delight to make us look small and foolish and we suffer. But if that is what it means to be a Christian, then we must be prepared to suffer appearing foolish and ridiculous. That is why it is difficult to stand in the open-air to sing and witness, preaching the word. You know that people are going past thinking, "What a lot of idiots!" and communicating what they think by their actions and laughter. Now look at it this way. That is the rejection of Christ. We are fellowshipping in Christ's sufferings. If we are brought into the Body of Christ, we are brought into that fellowship. For us it is only a small measure of it. In some countries there is much physical suffering, imprisonment, torture, martyrdom, for the faith, solely because believers are in Christ Jesus. Are they fools? Are they idiots? I think not, for Paul says that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8 v 18) and that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. (II Cor. 4 v 17)Counting all Things but Loss
In Philippians 3 v 8ff. Paul explains his own attitude further: "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." And if we work backwards through the verse, we shall find that there is no other way to know Him. We have to be made conformable to His death. Does it not say that in Romans? Crucified with Christ, the old man, the old nature is dead. Unless we know that death to self, we cannot go on to know Him. Working back through the verse, we find that, being made conformable to His death, we know the fellowship of His sufferings. We are standing with Him in those sufferings. We do not suffer as He suffered. No one can suffer as He suffered, but we know the fellowship of His sufferings, the rejection. If we know that, if we are made conformable to His death, and the fellowship of His sufferings is known to us, we shall also know the power of His resurrection. You cannot know resurrection life until you have died. Resurrection is 'standing-up-again' from death. So as we came to Jesus, we came confessing our sins. The blood of Jesus has cleansed us; the old nature has died and we have been born again, rising again to walk in newness of life, resurrection life. And we know Him and we go on to know Him. Yes, Paul's prayer was, "That I may know Him."If One Member Suffers...
That fellowship of sufferings is something which extends throughout the Body of Christ. There are believers who are suffering. There may be believers in our own assembly that are suffering for some particular reason. There are believers in other parts of the world who are suffering. The truth of the Word of God, in I Corinthians 12 vv. 24,25, is "For our comely parts have no need: but God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ and members in particular." Do we know that fellowship of sufferings? We experience the rejection of Christ, but the fellowship of sufferings extends to His Body which is the Church. If one member suffers, all the members suffer. The body metaphor is well understood. If you hit your thumb with a hammer, your thumb hurts, but your whole body reacts. You jump up and down, you shake your hand and stick your thumb in your mouth. Your vocal cords exercise themselves. Tears come to your eyes. It is agony and your whole body is in sympathy with your thumb. All the members suffer or are we separate? This is the fellowship.Do we know that common-ness one with another, that sharing together? Is this the fellowship that we continue stedfastly in as the apostles did? Now I do not desire to bring anybody under condemnation, but if we are filled with the Spirit, and if we know sound doctrine, then we will want to know that fellowship. The Philippians stood with Paul in his sufferings, in his imprisonment and so on, so that when Paul wrote to them from prison, he could say, "You stood with me; you had fellowship with (did communicate with) my affliction." They were not ashamed of his bonds; they sent him a gift. They were not ashamed to be associated with Paul, the prisoner of the Lord. Maybe we too can know that same fellowship, for as we do, as we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
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