This Week, I Gave a Talk for the Eastlake Young Adults here at HopeHaven.
Let’s Define Fellowship
The Bible puts a lot of emphasis on fellowship. This is more than hanging out, there’s real connection going on here. There’s a Greek word, koinónia, that we translate into fellowship. It means:
This kind of connection is more than being acquaintances or being familiar. This is about being known. This is about a measure of intimacy with one another that includes our inner spiritual person. The goes beyond minds meeting, to our emotions being recognized and honored, to our spirits being one, and even a participation in our will. Yes, we are all individuals, even married couples are two individuals, but there is a one-ness that is created in koinónia that somehow reflects the Trinity.
Rate Yourself: How Connected Are You? 1 2 3 4 5
From One, Many; From Many, One
This is the gospel in microcosm. From one, came many. And now, as many, the goal is to become one. From God came Adam, and God saw that this was incomplete. And so God caused Eve to come from Adam. Now we have a “many”. And this many was given to each other so that they would form a “one” in marital love. Of course, not long after, sin entered and broke this oneness between Adam and Eve, and also between humanity and God. And in a mysterious way, God intends today’s many to become one, and that this one Bride would join with God’s Bridegroom and one-ness will be complete. All our relationships, all our connections reflect this dynamic of many and one. There’s something mysterious and lovely at work here.
And this is what we are doing tonight. There’s something meaningful about gathering around a table and eating and drinking together. This is a sharing of the stuff of life. Each of us has contributed something. Many of us brought the meal. All of us bring our presence to this gathering. And together we celebrate life and food. We celebrate the goodness of God. Around this table we become more one. Over this meal our unity expresses something about who God is and what he is about. Let’s not underestimate eating together. This too is mysterious and meaningful.
Rate the Quality of Your Relationships 1 2 3 4 5
To Follow Jesus Is to Live in Community
Currently we are experiencing a kind of tribalism. People have banded together based on mutual hate, and what they are against. Our Jesus community is absolutely different. It is based on mutual love, it’s shaped by what we are for, and a celebration of our individuality and our unity.
I used to be a “one friend” kind of person. I had a best friend and I leaned into that. There were other friends, but my focus was on that one. This was hard for both of us. Jesus is a “many friends” kind of person. He called a dozen disciples, yet there were many more. He actively trained 72, and there was “the five hundred”, which in my mind isn’t probably literal, but more along the lines of “the many others who were part of the community”, and was likely often more than five hundred people. I’m not talking about being introverted or extroverted. I’m talking about a brokenness I had in not being willing to risk to create many healthy relationships.
Community was the classroom, Jesus was the teacher, sacrificial service was the curriculum. The graduates were transformed. They were a whole people, a new kind of humanity that was both diverse and unified.
