Jesus Christ, Disciplemaker by Bill Hull

Author:Bill Hull
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2004-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

7

Our Spiritual Bonding Force

There is a chasm that often exists in our personal relationships. Sometimes it seems impossible to build a bridge across that chasm, but it isn’t. People desperately need to be brought together in true fellowship. But how can that be accomplished? How can the family of God be truly united as a family should be? What bridge can adequately span the chasm?

There are many different ideas about the true nature of fellowship. Some people consider fellowship to be coffee and doughnuts, along with discussions about the world, the weather, and work. Others see it as a well-oiled machine designed by God to massage and lubricate people right into the church. But what is the true biblical perspective on fellowship?

The Greek word for fellowship, koinonia, means “sharing, holding in common.” What Christians have in common is an uncommonly sublime personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It is in the Messiah alone that we find our spiritual bonding force.

A Holy Foundation

As we look now to the life of Jesus to find the nature of true fellowship, we see him standing there in Jerusalem surrounded by some angry, legalistic Jews. As usual, they are upset about a breach of their Sabbath laws. There was nothing new in the charges they were bringing against Jesus, except that they were now so aggravated that the plot to kill him was rapidly intensifying (John 5:10–18). There remained at minimum a year and a half to the cross.

It was in the tension-packed context of this growing pressure that Jesus zeroed in on the essence of fellowship. The Master responded to the vicious attacks of the Jews regarding his actions on the Sabbath by referring to his relationship with his Father. “Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working’ ” (v. 17). In this statement he was implying that his actions (in this case, the healing of a paralytic man on the Sabbath) were directly related to his Father’s way of doing good things, even on the Sabbath! But this statement incensed the Jews even more than the Sabbath issue, for it clearly implied Jesus’ divine nature (v.18).

Jesus decided to give the Jews the full picture of the Father-Son relationship. He described that family fellowship in terms of dependency, love, knowledge, power, and honor (vv.19–30). We see in this passage that the primary characteristic of fellowship with God is submission. Jesus was in such intimate spiritual communion with his Father that he would not do anything until he first saw the Father doing it (v. 19), thus demonstrating a truly humble attitude.

Although he appeared on the surface to be an eccentric Jewish rabbi, Jesus was in direct communication with heaven. He identified the Father God as the source of his ability to minister and the authority base of his actions. He summed up his divine fellowship with the Father in a remarkable statement: “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me” (v.

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