“Fellowship” – Acts 2:42

Feature 2 – February 2021 — Grace & Truth Magazine

“Felloswhip” – Acts 2:42

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” —Acts 2:42 NKJV

What Is Fellowship?
Fundamentally, it is Christian fellowship: the common spiritual life in Christ that all true believers share one with the other. By the gospel, all have been called into the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son (1 Cor. 1:9). All call upon the name of the same Lord, Jesus Christ (v.2). When the apostle Paul spoke about the fellowship of God’s Son, he was drawing attention to the fact that the Son of God is the focal point of that fellowship. He is central to it. Indeed, He is vital to it. Without Him, there would be no true fellowship. It concerns Him, His interests, His honor, His glory, His coming and more. We can only have part in it because of our individual relationship with Him. This article explains some of the truths about it.

Fellowship Is The Enjoyment Of Eternal Life
Following Peter’s preaching of the gospel on the day of Pentecost, 3,000 souls were added to the newly formed company of 120 believers. Acts 2:42 describes their communal life together as “the apostles’ fellowship.” The apostle John wrote: “We proclaim to you the eternal life ... so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our [your, NKJV] joy may be complete” (1 Jn. 1:2-4 ESV). Christian fellowship is more than with each other; it is with Christ, who in His person is eternal life (5:20). We have been brought into the spiritual enjoyment of that eternally subsisting relationship between the Father and the Son! Also, the reality of this divine fellowship is made good in the power and energy of the Holy Spirit by “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:14).

Fellowship Was/Is Established By The Apostles’ Doctrine
The apostles’ doctrine and the apostles’ fellowship cannot be separated from each other. Acts 2:42 expresses their vital link: the apostles’. Christian believers can and do indulge in all sorts of social activities with each other, which they may claim is “having fellowship together.”1 However, Christian fellowship proper is that which is governed by the apostles’ teaching.2 In this respect, the apostle John states its boundaries – light (God fully revealed in the Son) and truth. Consider 1 John 1:6-7, which says, “If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice 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 cleanses us from all sin.”

Furthermore, the inter-relationship of all the topics in Acts 2:42 is very clear. First, the apostles’ doctrine – the truth – defines, explains, governs and regulates the fellowship. Second, the breaking of bread is the fundamental expression of the fellowship. Third, the prayers sustain believers in the good of the fellowship.

Fellowship Is Entered By Believing The Gospel
About 3,000 of the devout Jews present in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost obeyed Peter’s instruction to repent of their sins and call upon the name of the Lord for salvation (vv.5-41). Verse 47 states that conversions were a daily occurrence and that the Lord added all converts to the Church. This remains true and will continue until the Lord comes – each day people are believing the gospel and becoming members of the Church. There is no other way of entering, or becoming a member of, this fellowship (1 Cor. 1:9).

Fellowship Is Evidenced By Baptism
These first Christians were immediately baptized when they believed. The apostles carried out the Lord’s mandate: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mk. 16:15-16; see Mt. 28:19-20).

Baptism is the witness of allegiance to the Lord Jesus but also of belonging to the Christian fellowship. By it, the believing Jews declared that their former religious association with Judaism was finished. This caused them to suffer much persecution (Acts 8:1). Baptism was proof to fellow Jews of one’s acceptance of Jesus as both Lord and Christ and his joining with those of the Way (9:2). The Jewish believer did this at great personal risk and cost (Heb. 10:32-34). While practices have changed over the centuries, it is still true that baptism means professing to believe on the Lord and therefore belonging to the Christian fellowship.

Fellowship Exists In/By The Holy Spirit
Acts 10 records an event when the first Gentiles to believe were baptized in the Holy Spirit into the one fellowship and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, as had the Jews in Acts 2. First Corinthians 12:13 gives the apostles’ doctrine concerning this baptism in the Spirit: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” We see that by one Spirit all believers were baptized into one corporate body. For Jewish believers this occurred on the day of Pentecost, and for Gentile believers it happened when Peter preached in Cornelius’ house at Caesarea (Acts 10). All believers, whether then or now, individually drink of the one same Spirit and have been incorporated into the Church. Not only are all believers in living fellowship with each other, they are also livingly attached to Christ, their Head in heaven by the same Spirit (see Eph. 4:15; Col. 1:18).

Fellowship Is Empowered By The Holy Spirit
Each individual believer is a distinct member of the body of Christ, just as in the human body there are different parts: “For the body does not consist of one member but of many” (1 Cor. 12:14). And, just as in the human body every member has an essential function, the same is true of the body of Christ: “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (v.27). A local church functions not through human effort but by the power of the Holy Spirit. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit ... To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good ... All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills” (vv.4,7,11).

Fellowship Embraces All Believers
This point is really a continuation of the last two truths. By the gospel, believers have been called out of the world and “into the fellowship of [God’s] Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). All call upon the name of the same Lord (v.2). Sadly, since the days of the apostles the Church has divided to such an extent that there is no visible unity of Christian fellowship today. Being brought into the fellowship of God’s Son means that each local church must strive not to restrict their fellowship to become anything less than a Christ-centered community, which gathers to His name without any other label!

Fellowship Excludes Everyone Else
However, Christian fellowship is exclusive. It is only for those who have been saved and brought into eternal life (1 Jn. 1:5-10). Because fellowship is about people sharing things they have in common, it is obvious that all unbelievers are excluded from Christian fellowship. They are still in their sins and in its darkness, far off from the Holy God. Paul makes this exclusion clear in 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 with a series of rhetorical questions: “What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For [believers] are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make My dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’” Put that way, the things of Christ such as the gospel, the knowledge of God, the truth and practical righteousness are only of mutual interest to Christian believers.

Also, any professing Christian who is practicing gross immorality must be excommunicated from fellowship by his/her local church in order to bring about repentance and restoration to fellowship (see 1 Cor. 5, 6:9-10). Fellowship is also to be withheld from any heretic, one who does not abide in the doctrine of Christ (2 Jn. 7-11).

Fellowship Is Expressed In The Breaking Of Bread3
Sharing together in the breaking of bread, or communion service (the Lord’s Supper), is the fundamental of Christian fellowship.4 It is the middle church activity in Acts 2:42, and its importance is seen in verse 46 – it was a daily activity of the early Church. Its significance is highlighted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion [literally, fellowship] of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion [literally, fellowship] of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread” (vv.16-17). Every true Christian potentially has the right to partake of the remembrance symbols of Christ’s death because His blood is the basis of our fellowship with God – it cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn. 1:7). Without the Lord’s death there would be no such thing as Christian fellowship!

The act of remembering Him is done together as an assembly, and it therefore is the prime activity of any local gathering of believers. But this is not only a service of remembrance. It is a service for worshiping God. The cup to us is “the cup of blessing which we bless” – the means by which we bless God the Father (see Eph. 1:3-7; Heb. 2:11-12; 1 Pet. 1:3-5). First, thanks and true worship are offered to the Lord Jesus; then through Him true worship is offered to His Father by the Spirit.

Fellowship Encompasses All Relationships With Other Believers
This article has focused on the community life of a local church. As we close, it is important to be reminded that practical fellowship with other Christians is also important:

• Extending the right hand of fellowship (Gal. 2:9).
• Prayer and financial support of evangelistic activities, “fellowship in the gospel” (Phil. 1:5, 4:14-15).
• Financial and other support of the Lord’s people in need (Rom. 15:26-27; 2 Cor. 8:4, 9:13; Gal. 6:6).
• Sharing your faith by sharing of your substance – showing hospitality (Rom. 12:13; Phile. 6; Heb. 13:16).
• Sharing in believers’ sufferings for Christ (2 Cor. 1:7; Phil. 1:7; Heb. 10:33; Rev. 1:9).

May we be encouraged to honor the Lord in our fellowship.

ENDNOTES
1. See Feature articles in Grace & Truth, January 2007, Vol.74. No.1.
2. See Feature articles in Grace & Truth, January 2020, Vol.87. No.1.
3. See Feature articles in Grace & Truth, March 2019, Vol.86. No.3.
4. This fellowship is essentially table fellowship in which believers together share in the bountiful provision of the Lord’s table where the bread and the cup are the prominent elements (see 1 Cor. 10:21).

By David Anderson