382: Anthony Whitehorn - Exhortation: Fellowship

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1. 0:03

   Welcome to good Christadelphian talks. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our Daily News feed. Each week we post a talk that we previewed from suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world. Then we record a short intro beforehand as a personalized recommendation to you on why we are sharing the talk. And now?

2. 0:27

   Let’s talk more about this week’s talk. Hello everyone, this is Brother Simon. This week’s talk is an exhortation by Brother Anthony Whitehorn in 2008 on fellowship at the Idlewild Bible School. I love Brother Anthony’s energy and excitement he has in this exhort. He reminds us of our amazing and unique fellowship we have with brothers and sisters all over the world and how we are so much stronger together to help and build each other up on our journey to God’s Kingdom on His earth. So now here is brother Anthony Whitehorn on Fellowship. Good evening everybody.

3. 1:08

   Oh, thank you. It’s lovely to be here. And I tell you what, I can see something that you can’t. I can see over 400 really happy looking faces and, and that’s incredible. Not only they’re all looking the same, the same direction, I feel that they’re all going in the same direction as well. And the wonderful thing is, is that you’re all from all over the world, literally, and that is really quite incredible. Now us Brits, we’re not particularly prone to being excited about lots of things, but this is really exciting for us.

4. 1:44

   So it’s, it’s really exciting to be here. And, and I thank you very much indeed for your friendship and fellowship that already I’m starting to enjoy. And it’s that fellowship that I just want to think about. By way of exhortation this evening, I, I took a seminar at a Christadelphian conference a few years ago now and I based the seminar on the letter to the seven churches.

5. 2:08

   And what we did is we split up into different groups, and I ran the seminar for about 9 times and I got the groups to have a look at what would Jesus say? What would Jesus write to the Christadelphians? And when you look at the letter to the seven churches, always Jesus would write, first of all, some commendations, some good things about the churches.

6. 2:34

   And so I’ve said, what 2 good things would Jesus have written to us, the Church of the Christadelphians. You know what the amazing thing is, is that without exception, every single group put down the same two things.

7. 2:56

   They said that Jesus would have commended us, firstly for our Bible understanding, absolutely. And secondly, for our unique fellowship. Absolutely. And it is unique. I talked to my my colleagues at work and I explained what I was doing this week and they completely struggled to understand it. But it is unique and it’s tremendous.

8. 3:28

   And it is so similar, I believe, to what was going on in the 1st century. Christians. Would you turn with me please to Acts Chapter 2?

9. 3:46

   So Acts chapter 2 and verse 42, and I’m using the New International Version, and it’s just this one verse I just want us to think about because it says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Isn’t that asked this week? Isn’t that what we’re doing this week?

10. 4:13

    The apostles teaching fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer? And it’s almost as if when this first happened, when the believers first got together, that it was a unique situation. It was, it was as if people identified this as something very different. And so they used a word here for the very first time for this fellowship. It is the word, as you probably know, Koinonia, and it’s the first word, first time that it is ever used in the scriptures. And so it is used continually after that when the believers get together.

11. 4:56

    Hence now Koinonia. And what is that all about? What is Koinonia? Well, I, I, I suggest that it is actually really referred to in the book of Ecclesiastes. Would you turn back with me please? The book of Ecclesiastes and it’s Ecclesiastes chapter 4. Keep your finger in Acts 2. I was a bit late in telling you that was mine. So Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and verse 9 to 12/2 are better than one because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up, but pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?

12. 5:52

    Though one may be overpowered, 2 can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. 2 are better than one. Absolutely. Why? Because they have a better return if they work, because they keep each other warm. But also, and it was quite interesting, this in England we have a a game called rugby. How can I describe rugby?

13. 6:20

    It’s a little bit like American football without the padding. And what happens is that you have a group of eight men. This is going to be difficult to describe, a group of eight men who get together into a scrum and they push another group of eight men. And what the it’s a strange game. And what the, what the English rugby team did is they wanted to test the strength of those eight men. So they measured the pushing power of each of them individually.

14. 6:55

    And when they got each of them, they put them up against this machine that that that measured that pushing power of each of the individuals. When you added it all together, it came to about 100, let’s call it 100. They then got the eight men together and got those eight men to push and it came to 120, which means that actually together they were much greater than the sum of the parts.

15. 7:38

    And that’s what we’re exhibiting here this weekend. The whole is much greater than the sum of the individual parts. But just have a look at that, that last, that last phrase, that last verse, verse 12. Though one may be overpowered, 2 can defend themselves. A chord of three strands is not quickly broken. What a strange phrase that Solomon uses there. A chord of three strands is not quickly broken. I put it to you that the chord of three strands is me to you, you to Jesus, and me to Jesus.

16. 8:22

    Now that is a really strong three strands. I have colleagues at work that I just have one strand with and that can easily break. But with you and me and with you and your brothers and sisters here this weekend is absolutely a chord of three strands. And that is not easily broken. And I put it to you, that is Koinonia.

17. 8:55

    This is fellowship. This is the cord of three strands that we’re we’re having this weekend. And we are, if you like fellows in a ship together. We have the same objective. We’re going in the same direction. We have slightly different jobs. Some of us are helmsman, some of us are oarsman, some of us trim the sails, but we all have the same boat and we all rely on each other. We need a helmsman.

18. 9:31

    If somebody catches A Trab when they’re rowing, actually that puts the whole boat out. We need each other, us fellows in a ship together. This three cords is strong, but we, we require each other and there’s just two elements that I just want to think about in terms of that fellowship that perhaps we can think about now and also moving forward.

19. 10:00

    The 1st is this, we’re different. I, I look out there and I see 400 or so completely different faces. We’ve all got two eyes and nose and a mouth, but but there’s not one of us who’s the same.

20. 10:20

    And what does Paul write to the church at Corinth? He says God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. Now, we accept that we’re physically different, but we’re also emotionally and spiritually different as well. And sometimes I found that a little bit harder to accept.

21. 10:43

    You see our brother president here, But The thing is, is that God doesn’t want another one of him. He’s already got one. That’s the reason he doesn’t want another one of me either. He’s got one of them. He’s already got a brother. David Lloyd doesn’t want another one of those. It is God who has arranged the parts, the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. We’re all different.

22. 11:18

    We all have absolutely different strengths, and we have many, many different weaknesses as well. But we are sometimes naturally attracted to the people who are a little bit similar to us. But the church requires us to be different. That’s the strength of the church. We should be challenged by each other. Other people will give us different perspectives on things and that’s how we change, that’s how we grow, that’s how we transform by being different.

23. 11:54

    And thank God that we are different. We are fellows in a ship together, but we’re all slightly different. So having said that, we’re all slightly different. Actually, we’re also, or one in Ephesus. It was a very cosmopolitan town

24. 12:22

    and so was the church. And Paul recognised that. He recognised that there were different dynamics going on in the church itself. Oh, there were different barriers. Most certainly when you looked at the temple there you had the court of the Gentiles, the court of the women, then the Israelites, the priests and the holy place. It was all about separation.

25. 12:48

    But Paul writes the church there in Ephesus and he says this turn with you, with me if you wouldn’t mind to Ephesians chapter 2. And in my Bible, this section from verse 11 in Ephesians chapter 2 is entitled One in Christ. We’re different, but we’re all one. And verse 19 and 20 says this.

26. 13:19

    Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. We’re different, but because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are all one, all going in the same direction. In the First World War, there was a group of British soldiers who were fighting together and one of their company got shot. And so three or four of them took his body out of the battle line.

27. 14:14

    And this was in France and they wanted to bury him. So they went looking and they found a little Chapel in the middle of nowhere and they went up and they knocked on the Chapel door and the priest opened the door and the British soldiers in their broken French, because the British aren’t very good at foreign languages. They knocked on the door and they and they tried to explain to the priest that their colleague was dead and they wanted to bury him in the cemetery. And the priest asked as to whether he was a Catholic. And they, they looked at each other and they said, no, no, I don’t think he is.

28. 15:00

    And the priest said, oh, you can’t bury him here. Then they thought, what are we going to do? So they took him out and they they buried him just outside of the fence. And the next day when the British soldiers were together, they thought we must go and pay our respects to our dead colleague.

29. 15:22

    So they went back to the Chapel and they came to the fence and they started looking for the grave and they, they couldn’t find it so went up to the Chapel door and they knocked on the Chapel door and the same priest opened the door again. They said hi, do you remember us?

30. 15:38

    We came yesterday with our dead colleague, you know, and, and we buried him. Oh yes, said the priest. They said, but we can’t find him. Tell me, have you moved the grave? And he said no, I moved the fence.

31. 15:58

    And that’s what it’s about. It’s about removing the barriers. We although we’re different, we are all one together. When Christ chose his disciples, he didn’t choose them all exactly the same. He chose, on the one hand, Matthew the tax collector, and on the other hand, he chose Simon the Zealot. Why do you, why do you refer to him as Simon the Zealot?

32. 16:32

    I put it to you, it’s perhaps because he wanted to show the contrast between the friend of the Romans and the friend of the Jews. And yet Despite that they were one. And so we are different, but we are one all going in the same direction. And now just flick back finally to that passage in Acts that I ask you to keep your finger in. It’s Acts chapter 2 and verse 42, because it says about those 1st century Christians.

33. 17:13

    They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the Koinonia and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. How appropriate. They devoted themselves to fellowship and to the fellowship meal, because this is what this is, this bread and wine. It is a fellowship meal.

34. 17:44

    But why did Jesus institute two things? Why did he institute bread and wine? I suggest that it’s because they both have different meanings. When we look at the readings in Luke and Mark for the bread, it was Jesus who gave it to the disciples personally, and I would suggest that the bread symbolises the fellowship with Jesus that his disciples have, for the bread symbolises of course necessity, a bodybuilder. Jesus being the true bread of life. And the bread therefore, I would suggest is about focusing on the life giving power of Jesus, us fellowshipping with Jesus. The wine on the other hand is different. The wine, as it says in in Luke, was offered by Jesus and then the disciples passed it amongst themselves. Jesus didn’t go round handing it to each disciple as he did the bread, but the disciples passed it amongst themselves. And I would suggest therefore that the wine symbolised a fellowship with one another through Jesus. The wine is a symbol of a union, that we are all in the same state, and it is the wine which is given for the forgiveness of sins.

35. 19:44

    The bread is never referred to for the forgiveness of sins, only the wine. So the wine is about us sharing in our separation, but also us sharing in His grace, in His forgiveness. So, brethren and sisters, we are here now in a unique state because of this Koinonia of this threefold chord that we have. That is unique, but we are all different and we should be celebrating the fact that we are different because God put us in that state.

36. 20:39

    But we should also celebrate now the unity that we have. And as we come now to this fellowship meal, we think about the fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ, but the fellowship that we have with each other as we share together in that wonderful forgiveness and that incredible grace that we have. Amen. Thank you for listening to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast.

37. 21:29

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38. 21:46

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39. 22:19

    God bless and talk to you next week.