Pastor Robert and TaQuaris Smith
Pastor Robert: Praise the Lord. It looks like few of you survive Turkey Day, as I call it. Praise God. My prayer today is that we're able to really deliver the message that I believe the Lord wants us to share this morning. I've been in full-time ministry for, let's see, let's do the math, 20 plus years now. I asked the Lord many times, why did you call me to the pastor? I kind of envision Moses sometimes like, Lord, why did you put me in charge of these people? But those of us that have been in ministry, that's been pastoring, we know the analogy that pastor is a shepherd caring for a flock. And in order to do that, you have to have what we call a shepherd's heart, a pastor's heart.
I don't know how you can truly shepherd or pastor without what's called or known as a pastor's heart. And that's a love for people, for God's people with the understanding that we are only put on this earth to steward the work of God. We're stewards. We are here to take care of what's God's, not ours. And to do that, you have to have the proper heart to do that on those days, like Pastor Jeff was talking about, that you have joy no matter what the circumstances are or how many times people have disappointed you. In the life of the church, there is gonna be joys, there is gonna be disappointments, there is gonna be successes, there is gonna be failures.
But as a shepherd, under shepherd, as a pastor, I have a heart for God's people, the church. As many, many people are getting away from the church, I've raised the banner that I'm a church guy. The church matters to me and my heart. In these last few messages we've been sharing on community. One of the first messages that we brought when we came to Hope was about community. And I'll tell you a little secret; it won't be the last that you hear from us on community, because I believe that as the Lord is in a season of reshaping what the church has manifested into.
The church's mission has always been the same before the foundation of the world. It's just unfortunate that for whatever reasons as you want to fill in the blank, the church has not always been that expression as it was designed. I feel like it's our calling to continue to educate, to teach, to nurture, to mature the church, and be in that expression that the Lord wants us to be. I think that as a pastoral team, our messages are conducive to doing just that as we strive to walk according to the Jesus way, because Jesus is the head of the church. And so if Jesus is the head of the church, the body needs to look like the head.
The last few times, couple of times that we've ministered together, we've talked about different aspects of church community, and we used a foundational scripture for that that came from the book of Acts chapter 2 in verse 42. This is describing what we call the birth of the church, of the New Testament Church. And this is the description of how that new New Testament church operated.
TaQuaris: Acts 2:42, all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper and to prayer.
Pastor Robert: And so we've used this scripture in the, in a couple of the messages, taken out different aspects in this verse. It was important that the early church would continue on the apostles teaching because that was the foundational teaching of the gospel that was necessary to the building of the church and for the spreading of who Jesus was. And during this time, as you would read throughout the New Testament letters, there were a lot of false teachings popping up everywhere. And Peter and especially the Apostle Paul, spent a lot of their time teaching and correcting and reteaching and correcting and guarding against false teaching. So it's important. As we see in this scripture, it mentions that they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.
We talked about in our messages on community about the importance of sound teaching and doctrine as we form community, that is important for us to be on the right track when it comes to the word and how it's fundamentally important for us if we're gonna build a community, a Jesus community, that we rightly divide the word as much as we can. If anybody tells you that they have this thing all down pat, 100%, guess what? They're not telling you the truth.
I know we have those scholars that got it all figured out. I'm not one of them. I strive every day to try to get closer to understanding what the Lord wants to speak to us through His holy word. But we have limitations and to support us in our limitations, the Lord gives us the Holy Spirit. If we seek the counsel and guidance of the Holy Spirit, then we will have revelation on these holy scriptures. But we have to submit ourselves and humble ourselves to be in a place to ask the Holy Spirit for his guidance, and to also say that we're wrong or we don't understand, which we don't always want to do.
Then we also talked about, because in this scripture it said they were devoted to things like prayer. And we talked about building a community around prayer, where it wasn't just that we have these elite group of special intercessors and prayer warriors, which we're grateful for. There are many things that if it wasn't for people behind the scenes that devoted themselves to praying and interceding for other people and the things of God in the church, a lot of things would not have happened. I believe that wholeheartedly.
But what I'm saying is, as far as building a community, all of us need to be devoted to prayer in some form or fashion, praying for the church, praying for the things of God, and praying for one another. This is all of what community is about, which leads us, if we're continuing on this scripture, it leads us to our topic today. And that's Building a Community of Fellowship. If we take a look at how the church has responded to this scripture, it's obvious to me that it has mistakenly combined some elements together that are really separate, especially when it comes to the subject of fellowship.
We've done a great job with sharing of meals throughout the whole body of Christ, even especially here at Hope Community Church. We've started, I believe, a tradition. We have our monthly meals that we sit down and we break bread and we eat together. And that was something that even the early church, they got together on a consistent basis of sharing meals together. But the scripture says they devoted themselves to fellowship and to the sharing of meals. The sharing of meals within itself does not necessarily constitute what we're gonna talk about when it concerns fellowship. The sharing of meals is an expression of our fellowship, but it's not just fellowship within itself.
I'll tell you a little history, biblical history fact. A part of our fellowship, and we're gonna get into a definition of what we mean by biblical fellowship in a minute. But just to give you a little insight, so we understand that there is a distinction between biblical fellowship and just socially gathering together, there is a difference. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul had to address the Church of Corinth. The Church of Corinth was great at a lot of things. They had a lot of charisma. They had a lot of gifting. If you would describe them as a modern church today, they were great. They can give you a word. They could prophesy. They could lay hands on you. They can do all these charismatic gifts, but they lack some things because, and in so many ways, they were still carnal.
And so they were good at gathering, sharing of meals, even what they would call love feast. They called it the Gathering for the Lord's Supper. Today, we call it communion, which in itself, communion means fellowship. It comes from a Greek word we are going to talk about a little bit today. But communion and fellowship, biblically speaking, they're talking about the same thing. But the Apostle Paul had to make some correction because they were having these huge gatherings, sharing of meal and love feast. But he said something very interesting. You even call this the Lord's Supper, but he said, you are not even discerning the Lord's body.
Now, what was he getting at? They were having these huge gatherings, which was supposed to be in the spirit of love and the spirit of Jesus. But there was a lot of gluttony going on. There was a lot of selfishness going on. There was a lot of things that didn't represent Christ, but allegedly was in the name of Christ. We don't know what that's like, do we? We so-called gather for the sake of Christ in the name of Christ, but there is not that Christ-like spirit or atmosphere that's going on. So are we really in the spirit? Are we really communing, fellowshipping together in Christ if Christ's likeness is not present?
It's not just simply us gathering together and we look good and cheery on the outside, but in the midst of it, in the nitty gritty, nitty gritty of the ingredients, there are all kinds of things that are just quite plain antichrist. And so the Apostle Paul was saying, don't call us the Lord's Supper or, or love feast when you are not loving on your brother. Don't disrespect the Lord's name that way when you are not truly representing what he is. As we gather together in our so-called fellowships, we have to remember that we are urged to carry on that Christ-like spirit for each other in order for us to truly fellowship with one another.
Let me give you a definition. Fellowship is shared participation within a community. If I just stop right there, we saw that this morning as we prayed for Doug and Melissa. That was fellowship. That was biblical fellowship as we shared in the participation of praying for one of our own. The word in the Greek is koinonia. And this word, koinonia, is most often translated in English as sharing, as fellowship or as communion.
I mentioned earlier that we talked about the Lord's supper as we name it, communion. Why have we taken on that name? Because if you think about it, participating in communion is a shared participation. It's a fellowship of something that's very unique for us in the body of Christ. What other faith shares in communion or in the Lord's supper? No other faith does it. So that's something that we uniquely share together. That's something that is a mutual bonding for us, that holds us together as a faith community. So that's just an example.
What does this fellowship, this koinonia look like in the church community? Now, I don't have an exhaustive list, but just to highlight some things so you start to get the picture of where we are going. Fellowship looks in the community, the church community like when we serve the poor in our local communities. There were a few of us. And I was glad to see the numbers that we got to before we stuffed our faces with Turkey and ham and all the other good food. We were able to go to the local community, the mobile Hope community down here in Maple Hill and to help prepare to, so that they could have, the community could have Thanksgiving dinner. And we were able to gather. And some of us worked in the kitchen, some of us worked on decorations and tables and things like that.
We were able to sit down and communicate and fellowship and talk and pray and laugh with the people that came for this dinner. Some of us, me and Brenda Steam, wore our Hope Community Church t-shirts. And we were proud to do that because we were representing this local faith community outwardly in our local community. We got to share that together. It wasn't an individual effort. It wasn't something that, you know-- we were all connected together to serve the community.
TaQuaris: And there were other believers from other churches there too. And we are all part of the body of Christ, so we were all able to participate and share that together with other believers that were outside of our Hope community, which was really awesome.
Pastor Robert: And that's key, what my wife just said. There were other believers. That's something that we were able to jointly participate in together, not worrying about denomination, not worrying about doctrine, not worrying about theology. We were the expression of Jesus serving people for Thanksgiving.
TaQuaris: We were all unified with one same mind: to be a blessing to that community. When they came in and they saw us, they were super excited. Some of us sat down and talked to them and it was just a blessing. It's just a blessing to be able to give back like that.
Pastor Robert: It also manifests in community when we financially support others, and when we share the gospel, when we take upon the needs of the community in conjunction with sharing the gospel, that's something that we can jointly participate in. Because of that fellowship, that joint participation, then the community is blessed forward. The community becomes notably blessed forward, and it creates a sense of thanksgiving and gratefulness for the church community as a whole. We can see that in Second Corinthians 9:13.
TaQuaris: As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God for your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the good news of Christ.
Pastor Robert: And see the result of that, what it says. It says it will give what? glory to God? Glory to God. See, when we are in proper fellowship, what comes from that? Glory to God. What did Jesus say? They will know you are mine because of the way you have love for one another. Again, the direction is back to the Lord. It's not about us. It's a reflection of who God is. God receives the glory. When the church is in perfect fellowship, doing the work of the Lord, sharing the gospel, having serving hands, then God has a good name in the community. Amen. Praise God.
It's interesting, in order for us to reflect this fellowship, this koinonia, we have to have a strong foundation. And so what is the foundation of, of our fellowship? It's God himself. God enjoys perfect fellowship within himself. When I was a seminary student, the first time I had come into contact with this concept, I'm like, what are they smoking today? I'm like, what in the world are you talking? Because I had never heard of the relationship between the Godhead, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit I had never heard of that relationship in the sense of community that was foreign. That was something traditionally in church that had never been spoken of. But it's an actual reality of the relationship in the Godhead, God the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, they have perfect fellowship within himself.
God himself has perfect fellowship within himself. That's our foundation for this koinonia that we are to share with one another. And he has allowed us to participate in this same self-giving love that is shared between Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He is given us the opportunity as we are made in this image to share in that same relationship. John.
TaQuaris: John 17:5. Now father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.
Pastor Robert: You see, Jesus, he is saying, bring me back. Jesus is missing. He is ready to rejoin this fellowship because he made the sacrifice to come and tabernacle with us. He left that fellowship and now he is ready to eternally go back to this fellowship because that's the basis of what heaven is all about. It is this perfect fellowship between Father Son, holy Spirit, that is now to be manifested in the Lord's church. One first Corinthians 1:9.
TaQuaris: God will do this for he is faithful to do what he says. And he has invited you into partnership with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Pastor Robert: In second Corinthians 13:14.
TaQuaris: May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Pastor Robert: And then first John 1:3.
TaQuaris: We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ.
Pastor Robert: And so you see this extension from Father Son Holy Spirit, this fellowship is now extended to us. Now you can say, how in the world are we to have this same relationship as expressed in Father, Son, Holy Spirit? The scripture tells us the key. It said God will do this through us. He is faithful to do that through us as we continue to have fellowship with him. That's why when Jesus went away, he said, "I'm not going to leave you alone.”
There is so much more to our relationship with the Holy Spirit than just feeling goosebumps. I apologize for all the people that have come before you who have just relegated your Holy Spirit experience to just goosebumps. There is a reason. The Holy Spirit does so much more for us in our relationship with God than just goosebumps and happy feelings. One of the things is to promote and guide us through this fellowship that's expressed in the Godhead is that expression as we continue to be in Christ, that we also have that same fellowship, that experience with God himself. That's why we have the Holy Spirit, because within ourselves. We can't do it. We don't have the capacity to do it. But thank God that he tabernacles amongst us, that he is with us, that his Holy Spirit is with us.
What does this fellowship really mean for the church? We've seen the foundation, we've seen what it looks like, but what does it really mean for the church? And we are going to look at Philippians, quite a bit in Philippians right now.
TaQuaris: Philippians 1:3-7. Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my request for all of you with joy. For you have been my partners in spreading the good news about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God who began the good work within you will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. The King James version calls it fellowship. It says, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, and hearing the koinonia, it equals partnership which equals friendship.
In the Apostle Paul's letter to the church at Philippi, we get two more glimpses into the richness of this word, koinonia. In the opening chapter of the letter, he says that every time he prays to God, he prays with joy for the Philippians partnership in the gospel. Or rather, he prays for joy for the Philippians koinonia in the gospel. And usually when we think of the word partnership, we think of it in the corporate world. We also have an understanding of what makes someone a partner is a shared goal. However, here, Paul is talking about something much deeper.
When you read Philippians 1, you can sense the deep, intimate, affectionate bond that exists between Paul and these believers at the Church of Philippi. There was no superficial connection and it goes beyond a surface link or merely past and similarity. You see, something very personal and profound is what's uniting them. Also, we have to remember that.
Also, we have to remember that Paul, he isn't writing his letter from a warm three bedroom, two bath, two car garage home in a safe environment. We have to remember, he is writing this letter from a dark, damped cramped prison cell. And what does the word say? It says, "Yet he prays for them and he does it joyfully."
Pastor Robert: Fellowship, partnership. Lemme give you a secret of what you call the three amigos. You know, Pastor Jeff, Pastor Brian, and Pastor Robert. There is no way that these three very different and distinct guys can help navigate this church if there was not fellowship. As a matter of fact, I'll tell you a secret. When Pastor Brian in our early days of meeting with each other, with me coming on the board, he said something very profound that I thought about, but definitely preparing for this message. It's very apropos for this message.
He said, "Robert, I'm not hiring you to work for me." You remember that, Pastor Brian? He said, "I'm partnering with you."
I'm partnering with you, not hiring you to work for me. I'm partnering with you because we have a shared goal. Pastor Brian, Pastor Jeff and myself, we have a shared goal to bring forth the gospel and to help navigate this faith community to all that God wants us to be. That's our motivation. That's our bonding. That's where we put aside our egos and wants and desires, and we put forth for the shared benefit of the community. We talk and we check with one another and we ask each other questions and opinions. What do you think about this?
Each one of us in our own right-- even though these guys are a lot more gray-haired than me, which just means that they've been added longer than me, why would they ever consider me in anything that they do if it wasn't because we shared a mutual goal together that goes beyond just what we want to do? I love these guys for it.
I'll never forget when Pastor Jeff called us up before one of his sermons and he wanted to talk to us before he delivered one of his messages, just to check in with us to see how it fits with what we are doing, if it's going to ruffle some feathers. Pastor Brian and I, we don't mind ruffling feathers, but we are mindful of how we deliver and minister to you. We don't want to just ruffle feathers for the sake of ruffling feathers. If we ever speak and teach about something controversial, Pastor Brian doesn't say, "I don't know if I want to do that." We are able to talk and pray about it, to see how we are to deliver it so that-- it's not so much that you agree with it, but that we can, as Pastor Brian always says to us, we can have teaching moments.
Because we all have places to grow in our thinking, in our theology, in our walk, in our ministry, that we have to remain teachable. Sometimes, when things are controversial, they're not controversial because they're wrong or an error, they're controversial because we haven't expanded our understanding. And if we can commune with the Holy Spirit to be able to get something to help you grow, then we use it as a teachable moment to bring us all into the same place. Not that one person is here, and another person is down here, it is to bring the entire body of Christ together so that we are walking in this oneness, in this sameness.
Have you noticed? Even though we have our different flavor and deliveries, we are not preaching 20 different messages. That would bring confusion to you as the body of Christ, but if you've paid attention to our messages, they kind of go together. Even though we don't necessarily talk to one another, they go together. As Pastor AJ always tells me, there is only one Holy Spirit. There are no different Holy Spirits. There is one Holy Spirit and he speaks to all of us. And so if we commune, we have fellowship with the Holy Spirit, then we can all get on the same page.
The beauty of our community is that we don't all look the same, sound the same, or express the same, and we don't have to, as long as we share the same goals. The beauty of the body of Christ, of a faith community is that we, in all of our diversity, can have that expression of God that helps us grow closer to him in our fellowship. Because if you think about the perfect fellowship in the Godhead, Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, there are distinct characteristics of those personalities, but it's an imperfect harmony. They're imperfect harmony, and they present to us the one same God. And it is a mystery.
If anybody can tell you, they can give you the analogy and the expression of the Trinity, the so-called Trinity, they're lying to you. I remember one time in seminary class, we were supposed to explain the Trinity. I remember they came to me and I was like, "I don't know. I don't know how it works. I just believe." And they're like, "Is Robert okay?" All because I said I don't know. But I don't know. I'm not going to sit up here and try to explain something to you that I don't have the words to explain.
Explain the wind. Can you explain the wind? You can't see it, but you know it's there. That's how I believe in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I can't explain it, but I know they exist, and they exist as one God in perfect harmony and fellowship with one another. Because of that, we see this perfect unity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And the purpose of our fellowship is that fellowship builds unity in the body of Christ.
TaQuaris: Philippians 2:1-2. Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love, any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another and working together with one mind and purpose.
Pastor Robert: That's what our fellowship with one another is all about, is to unify us, unity. Can you imagine a unified church? It's sad to me that we even have to ask that question because that's our whole existence as the body of Christ: to be unified. Could you imagine a world-- I'm not asking to be John Lennon, but can you imagine a world where the body of Christ is unified? What does that look like? And what implications does that have for this world? A unified body of Christ that's working with the same mind, with the same purpose?
Now, you can call me a dreamer, but if you ask me if it's possible, it's possible. It's possible. But there is a lot of gutting out that needs to happen, a lot of distractions that need to be done away with, a lot of contaminants that need to be cleansed from us. But it's possible. And it starts with each and every one of you listening in these chairs and on these airwaves online. It starts with you. It starts with your attitude. It starts with your surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ and your seriousness. That's why the scripture says this early church was devoted to this. When you use the word devoted, devotion, that means you are serious about it.
The early church was serious about these things that they had these spiritual practices to keep together. You know what reality is? And one of the things in fellowship that we don't like to talk about when it comes to fellowship in Christ, but if you are going to be fellowship with Christ, you can't live without it. It's suffering. We don't talk about the fellowship in the suffering. But you know what? Can I be real, real, real honest with you? That's one of the things that unified the early church.
I'm not going to sit here and say that I pray for persecution for the church, but it helped them in the first century to unify and be devoted to one another, and they grew exponentially under persecution. God forbid that we need that now that we have the gospel 2000 years in, we have everything that we need. God forbid that we need the church to be persecuted in order for us to unite together. I think we can do a lot better than that, but I believe it has to do with a choosing. It's like on this day, who are you going to serve? Are you going to serve the God of this world or are you going to serve Jesus? There is no in-between, let's go all out with Jesus.
We've told you before, God has a lot to do in this community of faith. There has been a daunting task that's been put before us, but I know we can do it if we fellowship together in the bond of Christ. We want to leave you with this last scripture here,
Jacque: first John,1-7: But if we are living in a light as God is in a light, then we have fellowship, which with each other and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin.
One central point to the message of one John, is that our fellowship with one another is born out of our fellowship with God. The fact and experience of Christian fellowship, it only exists because God, the Father, through Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Holy Spirit has established by grace a relation or a new covenant with humankind. Those who believe the gospel are united in the Holy Spirit through the Son to the Father. And this relationship, it leads to the reality of a connectedness and it to an experienced relationship, a communion within community between us and God.
Those who are in Christ are in communion, not only with Jesus and the Father in the Holy Spirit, but we also are in chameleon with one another because we are meant to draw close together in participation in the gospel. The important thing is not that we just meet with each other, but that we authentically share our lives with God and with his people. Because the church is intended to be rooted in Christ alone. But this can only be done through believers having fellowship with the Father and also having fellowship and participation with other fellow believers.
Additionally, there should be unity within the church, unity and purpose, unity in action, and also unity in belief. Sometimes, this isn't easy, however, we understand it takes work on how we form our relationships and friendships with other believers. It can be hard to make sure that we are putting in the intentional time that we need to fellowship with other Christians, especially in the days that we are living in now with our busy lives. We have to be intentional about putting in that time.
When we do it, it is so rewarding because we need it. We need to be sustained in our faith by being part of the body of Christ. God's plan is not to have a bunch of lone ranger Christians, or I would say footloose individuals to sink or swim on their own. No, God has placed us into the family of God, and this is called the church. We share life together. And in that close community, we are built up in our faith. We are like cold in the fire. Together, we stay warm. When you pull us apart, we draw cool and are in danger of dying out.
Pastor Robert: We just want to urge you to strengthen our bonds of community so that the reflection of that fellowship, that koinonia that Father, Son and Holy Spirit has can be reflected in us and then we can see our community grow beyond our wildest imaginations. I believe that that's the Lord's word for us today, for Hope. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Pastor Brian: Thank you, Robert. I was thinking about even our Haiti family and one of the things that brought real fellowship and unity here, even among us, was the suffering that they were going through, and how so many people have come together, not just from this church, but from our community to help and alleviate their suffering. If we could just look for people who are suffering today, if we could just see some suffering and start to alleviate that suffering, that's a way for fellowship to truly happen. Just like you are suffering with a bad knee, and we want to rally around you.
There are other types of suffering, whether it's suffering from an affliction, suffering from a loss that we've had and incurred, maybe a life partner that has passed. It could be anything like that. If we are here to walk with each other, then in those seasons, we can truly express the kind of fellowship that Pastor Robert and TaQuaris were talking about today.
I think it's appropriate that Robert and TaQuaris will be serving communion after the service this morning. For those of you who want communion, over here to my right, your left. And if you'd like prayer for anything after the service, we'll have people here to pray for you as well. Let's lift our hands together.
And now, may the Lord bless you, and may the Lord keep you, and may the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace, and may you experience a true joy of fellowship with our Lord. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful day. If you can help set up tables, I'd appreciate all of you who could stay after to help Pat. He'll give you good directions. God bless you. Have a wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 11-26-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.