FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD AND ONE ANOTHER

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.” Acts 2:42-43 ESV

Early Christians called themselves a “third race” or a “new race.” They recognized that they were not Jews, not Gentiles, but one new man embracing all who are in Jesus. Paul says that the idea was that God would “create one new man out of the two” (Eph.2:14-15). As The Message translates this verse, it’s “a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.” No one could “pull rank,” as it were. John Chrysostom was one of the great preachers of the Early Church (his name means “Golden Mouth”) and he put it like this: It was “as if one should melt down one statue of silver and another of lead and the two together should come out gold”. This bringing together of Jew and Gentile in Jesus partially fulfils God’s eternal purpose, as stated in Eph.1:10, that He might gather in one all things in Christ.

The Jerusalem church practised daily fellowship as they listened to the apostles' teaching, broke bread (communion meal), and prayed together. The togetherness or oneness of the church resulted in a mighty display of the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:42-43). They did not fellowship with unbelievers (2 Cor.6:14), but their fellowship was with one another, first only Aramaic and Greek Jews, but soon expanded to other races and nations as well (Gal.2:9; 1Joh.1:3,7).

One of the worst problems of the church is that we still, in a great measure, live in our own little boxes, separated from one another. We think we know our other races' brothers and sisters, but this is not always true. Frequently we are still strangers to one another, we do not know or understand one another’s traditions, cultures, circumstances, ideals and fears. It is time that we start talking to one another. The famous South African writer Ellen Kuzwayo said: Africa is a place where stories must be told. We need one another’s stories if we want to get to know and appreciate one another. My story is the eyeglasses that I give you to look through to my life. I need your eyeglasses to look through them at your life. It does not matter how much pain some stories will cause by looking at them, if we want to understand one another we must speak to one another! We need to work out a strategy to get believers from all backgrounds- business people, women, fathers, mothers, students, children - together to speak to one another. We will be amazed at what might happen.

PRACTICAL POINTS

ME: Find at least one person of another race and ask him or her to tell you their story. Invite a family or a person of another race to a meal at your house. Ask the Lord to open your heart for new cross-cultural friendships.

US: Go to a church where people from a different race worship. Join them for a worship service, and let your heart be blessed.

THEM: Visit an area where people from a different culture are staying. Just linger there and ask the Lord to open your eyes to see them in a different light.

Remember your John 17 memory verse.

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; this is the way of Christ,"– John Chrysostom