Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South
Australia. But I'm not sure if you're like
noticed the theme over the last couple of weeks of actually a
lot of Jesus ministry was not so much meeting to meeting as it
was table to table that a lot of Jesus ministry, you see him, I
think Dave said it last week. You're either seeing Jesus
eating at a table on his way to eat food or preparing a meal or
having just eaten like you see this thing like as we talk spoke
last week, the feeding of the 5000 is one of the few miracles
actually recorded in every gospel.
And it was mostly around people seated in circles eating food
like there's something Jesus first miracle had a feast.
We see this thing that a lot of Jesus ministry was actually
around tables, and it's quite interesting that when you look
at the book of Acts and you start rolling through the early
church, somehow their ministry model looks very much remarkably
like Jesus. They weren't so structured
around Sunday meetings. They met in the temple regularly
to pray and together. But then you read in Acts
chapter 2 and Acts chapter 5 that they also met from house to
house. And Paul writes in Romans when
he's, he's going through his long list in Romans 16 of all
the people he's thinking of, he says, ah, greet this person,
greet that person. And a number of those, he's kind
of going greet that person and everyone in their house.
And then he writes and he says, oh, and to Chloe's household and
to the people they're meeting in Priscilla and Aquilas, the
church that meets in their house, greet them as well.
And we see this idea that church ministry is not Sunday ministry.
It never was designed that way. God, God's intention was never
that church should be somewhere that we come on a Sunday, we sit
in rows and we receive something and then we're off on our merry
way. Monday rolls in and that's it.
We've forgotten the, the ministry model, if you like, of
the early church and of Jesus was this is a daily thing that
this was a house to house thing that it doesn't matter if I'm
catching up with Leon and Pat in their home or I'm catching up
with Michael and Carol in a Cafe, like that's ministry.
Jesus intention was that that would be the church gathering
together, reading together. And so we're going to start our
journey. We're actually going to talk a
bit about this, but we're going to start in Acts chapter 2.
And this is right after Pentecost has come.
So this is really the origin story of the church.
So like, if you want to know what things should be like, you
go right back to the very beginning.
When did the church start? What was taking place?
What happened? Origin stories are very
important. And so we're going to start in
Acts chapter 2. Holy Spirit's come fire, tons of
fire, awesome miracles. Things are things are breaking
out everywhere. 3000 people get saved.
Like this is a phenomenal revival taking place in
Jerusalem. And then it says this in Acts
242, either in you, King James, you might have different
versions in your Bibles, it says, and they being the new
believers, this, this the first church, they continued
steadfastly. Or in other versions, they
devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to fellowship,
to breaking of bread and to prayer.
They being the early church. I think often when we think of
church like, ah, so the apostles teaching, that's like the
elders. They, they don't devote
themselves. And there's a there's a point of
that where elders that teach well, but there's also the fact
that here, like it's saying, they devoted themselves to what
was being taught and to obeying the word of God.
And this, this word, the word devoted or continued steadfastly
is literally meaning to be earnest towards.
It's not like a passive thing where I'm like, I'm waiting for
the the teaching from the front or, you know, I'm waiting for
somebody to share a scripture to me to tell me what to do.
No, no, I'm eager and I'm earnest towards the apostles
teaching. I'm front footed when I'm
breaching the word of God. I'm like, God, speak to me out
of what's being shared. Speak to me out of your word.
I want I'm desperate to obey you.
And then he goes on and he says, you know, they're devoted to the
apostles teaching and that says they're earnest towards
fellowship. We're going to, we're going to
dive deep into that one this morning.
But then it also says they're, they're earnest towards the
breaking of bread, referring to communion.
They're they're earnest. They're eager to promote the
gospel, the good news of Jesus. Like this is something that I
think we can look at our lives and say, how earnest am I
towards the apostles teaching? What's my attitude like when I
come and approach the word of God?
When I hear somebody share the word of God on a Sunday, am I
earnest? Am I coming in on the edge of my
seat? They're like, God be able to
speak to me. You're going to give me
something that I can do that I can enact, that I can put in
place. I'm, I'm quick to obey.
Or do we take a bit of a passive approach to the work?
Same with the, the, the message of the gospel.
Jesus sacrificed promoting the gospel.
We're like, you know, if it happens, if it, if it gets
brought up in conversation, then, you know, maybe I might
share it. But these guys are like, no,
I'm, I'm earnest. I'm earnest to tell you about
what Jesus has done, earnest to break bread with you and and
remind you, hey, you're a Christ died for your sins.
Did you know that? Like whether it's believers or
unbelievers, like I think all of us could do with remembering,
you know, whether it is the land, like that's what we're
here for. And then it says that they're
also earnest towards prayer. Like how earnest are we really
towards praying publicly, privately, when, when we hear of
something, our first response should be the land.
We're going to pray. So we, we intentionally said
this morning before we start, like find somebody to pray for,
be earnest when somebody says something, Hey, let's pray now.
Or we're kind of going, you know, I might pray, I might,
might do that if I find some time or something.
No, no, I'm going to pray. I'm earnest.
I'm front footed towards bread. So I just think those four
things we look at the origin story of the church is that they
were front footed in earnest towards these things.
And as I said, we're going to dive into the fact that the
early church was front footed towards fellowship.
They were front footed towards fellowship.
They worked kind of going, yeah, I'll go on Sundays and then
maybe I'll rock up at a prayer meeting if, you know, if I don't
have school sport on or something.
I mean, you guys, many of you aren't in that stage of life,
we're probably going to hit that.
So, you know, if, if it falls on a day that's convenient for me,
then maybe I'll go if I don't have something else on TV that I
want to watch. Like these are realities that
unfortunately, so many Christians can find themselves
in where they're not actually sort of front footed to
fellowship. And I think as the early church,
they were very much intentional. We need to be together.
And as Dave said, then he comes together and he's like men.
I'm feeling much more built up together.
I mean, this, this word fellowship is the word Kononia.
It's for those of you who are writing notes.
It's KOIN ONIA coin with a KONIA kinoinia and it's actually the
same word in the Scripture used to describe partnership.
Paul writes in Philippians 13 and he says I thank my God for
your partnership or fellowship Kinoinia in the gospel.
He's kind of this, this fellowship word isn't just
attending church meetings. Now as a pastor in the church,
we would love every person to be in every meeting.
But I'm going to lie, that would be great.
But that's not annoying me. Just because we're here this
morning does not automatically mean we are in Kenoinia with
everyone. Does that make sense, right?
I want to talk just around 4/4 kind of ingredients what
Kenoinia kind of looks like, right?
The first one is that we need people.
Kenoinia cannot exist between me and God.
Only my Christian walk. My God never designed the
Christian walk to be only a vertical relationship.
Otherwise there would be no need for the church.
God created the church because he realized that this thing is
not just vertical, it's a horizontal thing as well.
And God is preparing a bride for himself.
He, you know, right back to the beginning where it says like,
hey, it's not good for men to be alone.
He's going to hang on. God, you're there we go.
Yeah. This thing's also meant to be
walked out horizontally. I was listening to a podcast the
other week. I was just talking about
different cultures and it was talking about the African
culture around how when they worship Jesus, a lot of their, a
lot of our Western culture is, aren't worshipping upwards.
But they said that in African culture, a lot of their worship
when they're worshiping Jesus is horizontal.
It's hey, we're worshipping together and I'm looking you in
the eye as we're singing to Jesus and we're jumping together
and we're dancing together, not just me like you, you watch
Western church and we're jumping up and down, but these guys are
like they're backwards and forwards and interacting because
they understand this idea that the church was not just
vertical. The church is horizontal.
And I think we need to be people that are earnest towards each
other, earnest towards the people of God.
We need to be front footed in the fact that how's my heart
towards other people and other believers?
Am I purely focused on my relationship with God?
And that's the most important, which it is important, but
actually what's really important is my heart towards other
people. It's my heart that I'm earnest
towards others. As Paul writes in Philippians
and he says I long for you in Philippines 1/3 to 8 when he
talks about that partnership in the gospel, it's going, man, I
have you in my heart. I'm feeling for you.
I'm, I'm yearning for you with the same yearning that Christ
has for you. I wonder if that's that's in our
heart because that's the beginning of Kanuenia.
When man, I'm yearning for Dan. I come, I'm yearning to see Dan
coming to the fullness of what God has.
Or am I just focus on God? What can you speak to the word?
What can you speak to me? Well, you know, I'm coming to
worship you and and it's all about me.
I loved a lot of our songs this morning.
Now you know how great is our God, our God.
When Jesus taught us to pray, was it my Father, our Father?
This idea that Kenonia requires people, it's not just a vertical
thing, it's a horizontal thing. Kenonia requires a place that's
this is. I know it's fairly quite basic
stuff, but just because I have somebody in my heart does not
necessarily mean I'm in Kenonia. For example, I was thinking
about this. I told you guys, I'm married.
I'm married. Good job.
Yeah. But if I said that my wife was
in the UK and you're like, oh, cool.
So you guys, you guys like, meet up and I'm like, no, we never
see each other. OK, so but you guys are on the
phone. No, no, no, we're not on the
phone at all. You'd start to question whether
we were actually married. You'd be kind of like, what kind
of a marriage is this? That's the same thing with
annoying, right? It's like, yeah, I have you in
my heart. So do you think about them
often? No.
Do you call them? No.
Do do you meet up with them? Not really.
Are you actually in fellowship? Like, does that make sense?
That's the idea of Kenoyda, right?
If I like, Paul says that when he writes to the Romans in
Romans 18 to 12, and he says I'm longing to come to you.
Like he's going and I'm trying as hard as I can.
I need to be with you because I understand Kenoyda isn't just
it's not just enough that I have you in my heart, I have to be
with you. Annoying you.
Or is that having a place where I meet you?
Now, the wonders of technology mean that we can actually, you
know, bridge those distances quite considerably through video
calls and phone calls and stuff like that.
They didn't have that in these days.
But like the point is we can have them in their heart and
we're like men. I can pick up the phone and I
can call you or I can meet with you and I can hang out in your
living room or around your table.
That is annoying you When we start to to we, we're having
people in our heart that we're saying that we need to make a
time and a place and we need to talk and we need to hang out and
we need to fellowship together. And that's that's partly why we
have church meetings because why actually we understand that it's
more than just people. It's about actually gathering in
a place annoying. We need to gather together.
We need to be together. As I say, social leaders, we'd
love everyone to be in a meeting, but it's not about
being in a meeting because, as Dave said last week, like, it's
about being around tables. It's about being in people's
living rooms. It's about, hey, like I've got
you on my heart. Can we have a time where we can
at least go out to a cafe and have a coffee?
And that starts to breed in to Canonia.
So Canonia requires people. Canonia requires a place, but
Canonia also requires a purpose. Just because I go to Westfield
Marion with lots of people in one place does not mean I'm in
Kanoya with all the people that are there shopping, right?
It seems obvious. Just because I go to Marion to a
shopping centre and I'm there with lots of people in the same
place does not automatically mean we are in Kanoya.
We actually need to have a unified purpose when we come
together in Kanoya. We come together in one purpose
when pool rights in the book of Philippians and he he writes to
the church. He says, I pray that like you
guys, if you have any fellowship with God, if you have any Kanoya
with the Holy Spirit, then make my joy complete by being one man
by being in one spirit, having 19 contending as one man for the
gospel. If you've got any fellowship at
all, make sure you're coming together as one with one
purpose. It's quite God like if we all
came here and we all had different agendas.
I had an agenda that I really wanted to preach and it was all
about me and, and somebody else is like, I'm coming for the
coffee. The coffee's the best thing.
We're kind of getting a bit disjointed and falling a little
bit out of canonia. I bet we can't actually live in
the fullness of canonia if we're all coming in with our own ideas
and our own agendas and our own plans.
And then I just can't wait for the the food that's going to
happen at morning tea and morning tea food is great,
right? But ultimately we come together
with one purpose and one heart and one mind.
And it's also, it also extends itself to being earnest towards
the purpose of God in each other, right?
Canonia isn't just, again, it's not just about us coming to a
church meeting or being in each other's home, but it's actually,
Canonia requires me to be earnest about the purposes of
God in you and you being earnest about the purposes of God in me.
So that when we come together, whether it's in a living room or
in a Cafe or in a church meeting, my focus isn't me.
My focus isn't what I want, but my focus is, how can I help you
walk into the purposes and plans of God and bring you into his
purposes and plans? How can I help mature you?
And what, what is it that God wants to do in us together and
do us up together into more of his purposes?
Ultimately, God's ultimate purpose for his church is that
we will become a pure, spotless bride for the land that is, that
is what God is busy building. He's building a mature bride
that is pure, radiant and spotless.
And so when we come together, we come together with that in mind,
we come together. If I'm sitting at a cafe or I'm
sitting maybe round with Dudley and Anne or Adel Leoni's house,
I'm in the forefront of my mind and like God's purpose for this,
it's that we would, we would sharpen each other and mature
each other in preparation for him.
That we would become more mature in Christ.
That when we leave, I'm like, man, we're a little bit more
mature than when we came in. We're a little bit more
encouraged than when we came in. Does that make sense?
That quinoa requires people, that I have a heart for people,
that I'm front footed towards the people of God.
Quinoa requires that I'm front footed in meeting with other
people. Phone calls are great.
Meeting being in person is awesome.
We get so much from being in being together.
It also requires that I'm front footed in seeing the purposes of
God outworked in the people of God, so that when I come
together, I'm front footed and say, man, I'm here for the
purposes of God, not for my agenda, not for my purposes, but
I'm front footed in that. And Canoya fourthly requires
participation. Participation see, Kimonia is
not just even in the early church, it wasn't just we came
and we sat down and we received and we do have moments to
receive from God. But when Paul writes to the
Corinthians, he says, Hey, when you come together, everyone has
asylum in the spiritual soul. Everyone.
It's quite quite a bold statement.
Hey, like, I'm not sure how many of us did we all and we're not
going to show of hands, but did we all come with a word of
encouragement, a song, a song, a scripture?
Did we come ready to participate in the annoying of the
fellowship? So I use this analogy, right?
Just imagine we're going to a sports game.
OK, Crows, maybe Adelaide Crows are playing.
Apparently they're top of the ladder at the moment, I think.
Is that right? Top of the ladder, right?
So Kanonia is not just the fact that I'm there supporting the
Adelaide pros with all the other supporters where people in a
place with a purpose for supporting the pros, you want
them to win. Kanonia is me actually being on
the field playing the game. Is that it's that that me
crossing the boundary to say actually I'm more than just a
spectator in this. I'm now a partaker and a
participator. And it's it's interesting when
God pulls us into fellowship with himself, he calls us Co
heirs and Co labourers. Yeah.
With him, yeah. He doesn't just leave it.
Hey, you're a Co heir. You're a, you know, you're a
benefactor. He's going to know you're a
participator. Yeah.
And so many of the scriptures, Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12
say, hey, let us each use our peers according to the grace
given us. Like let us serve one another.
Let us build each other up. Let us offer to each other like
our lives, let us love one another, others, four of these,
these one anothers throughout scripture.
And so when we come together in Kenoinia and this is this is
it's a beautiful thing, right? Kenoinia, when we come together,
it's it's about me yearning and having a heart for the people of
God. It's about me yearning to be in
the same place with the people of God.
It's about me yearning to see the purposes of God, how it
worked. It's about me wanting to
participate in what God is doing.
And that's not just like we can think often, OK, well, I've got
to have a song and a spiritual song and everything like that.
But the Bible's also full of other participation methods.
But it actually tells us to serve one another.
It actually tells us to honour one another.
In Philippia, in Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 14, it says to
strengthen each each other, to build each other up.
One Corinthians 11. So it's about honouring each
other and honouring the Lord. It's about unity, humility and
service. And this is participating in
Cornuino. And I was catching up.
I caught up with Dave for a coffee on Friday morning and we
went to a cafe down in Port Nalonga.
You know, we sat there and we're just like, man, this coffee's
got. This cafe has a bit of a vibe
and it's really cool. I like it.
It's one of my favourites. We were sitting there kind of
going, what is this? Why does this cafe feel so cool?
Right. I think it's his culture.
Like the cafe has built a culture, you know, that is God's
desire for his church. His desire is that the canonia.
The canonia would take place. Why?
Because we're all here. We're all gathering together.
We all have one mind. What's the mind?
We're here to prepare the bride. We're here to encourage each
other, and we're all participating.
Yeah. Yeah.
And somebody walks into that and they're like, whoa, what's this
vibe? What's this culture?
And you see this in the early church, like people just started
joining daily. Like it goes from this big 3000
people that literally a chapter later, it's like, and daily the
Lord added to their number. Why?
Because people came in, they saw these, this group of people that
were so front footed, not just to obey God's word, that
actually so front footed and committed to each other.
And they're like, man, I'm desperate to see God's purpose
outworked in you. You're desperate to see God's
purpose worked out in me. We're sharpening each other.
We're encouraging each other. People come into that and like,
whoa, this is this is amazing. I don't experience this anywhere
else. This is God's heart for his
church though you and I that we would be committed and front
footed to fellowship. And we see throughout the book
of Acts that these guys met in the temple from home to home,
but with the desire of fellowship.
And it's interesting if we flick over to the book of 1 John and
this is this is Paul, some some scholar says saved unsaved, but
this is this is how he opens the book of 1 John.
I think he's potentially writing to unsaved people, but he says 1
John one that which was from the beginning, which we've heard,
which we've seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and
our hands have handled concerning the word of life.
He's got this life. This is the connoting.
It's like this life. You know we've we've experienced
Christ's life, it's manifested and we've seen and we bear
witness and declare to you the eternal life which was from the
Father and was manifested to us that which we have seen and
heard. We declare to you that you also
may have fellowship Kanoinia with us and truly our fellowship
Kanoinia is with the Father and with his son Christ you these
things we write to you that your joy may be for you read this and
he's like man, I just he's got man.
I want I want every single person not just to be in
fellowship with Christ. It's gotta go as AI don't but
that I'm writing this so that you might become in fellowship
in Canoinia with us and truly when we experience and we start
living out in the Canoinia of what God wants.
Then he kind of goes on and he says that you also may have
Canoinia with us and truly, truly, when we start
participating, when we start seeking the purposes and plans
of God, when we start gathering together, truly fellowship.
Our canonia is also with Christ Jesus said it himself is the way
two or three gathered there. I am in It wasn't about the
magical number of two or three. It was about when people come
together in canonia. It's not a formula.
It's the fact that people were coming and gathering and said
then we're gathering together to seek Jesus in unity, in
fellowship. We're intentional about this.
If you'll get there, there I am, there I am when you gather in
canoeing it. So there I'm in the midst of it.
So I would encourage us as we've speak, spoken the last couple of
weeks about actually pursuing the fact that fellowship is
important and gathering around each other's tables.
Then as the early church was, we need to be front footed and
earnest for fellowship. And I sometimes practical things
can get in the wet, but that's where we go to God and say, God,
if this, if, if fellowship is important, which it is to God's
heart, we say, God, make a way for me to participate.
If maybe it's in your heart, you're like, man, I'm not as
front footed towards the people of God as I should be.
I'm, I'm a bit more self-centered in my faith.
Maybe your prayer needs to be, Hey, God, help me to just think
of people more, help me to think of others more.
Help me to become a little bit self-centered, less
self-centered, but maybe, maybe, maybe that's OK.
But maybe you're like, man, I just, I need to be yearning a
bit more to be in the place with the people of God.
Like to pick up the phone. I need a bit more courage just
to pick up the phone or message somebody, say, hey, like, let's
find a time and catch up. Or maybe maybe you're OK with
that. Maybe it's just the purposes.
You're like, when I catch up with people, we're just talking
about footy or we're talking about the latest movie or the
weather or work men. God help me to change my
conversation. When we come together, then I'm
actually seeking the purposes and plans of God.
But maybe all of that's good and maybe you're just like God.
I don't know how I can participate.
I'm not musical like our guys. They're like, I can't make good
coffee. But God help me find a way to
participate in Kanoenia. Help me find a way.
If I can't make community group because of work or other
situations, you go. God help me find a way that I
can participate in the Kanoenia because God's desire is that
each one, everyone would participate in serving each
other, in honouring one another, in being part of what God is
doing. They said every person in the
church, in the body of Christ that has a gift has an ability
to actually build up the body and edify and prepare the bride,
every single one of us. So as I say, I want to encourage
you guys like let's be front footed in fellowship as much as
we are front footed in the world, as much as we are front
footed in prayer, front footed in promoting the gospel.
Let's meet people who are front footed in fellowship and
desiring that with everything. Thank you for joining us for
today's message. For more information about The
Way Church, please visit ourwebsite@thewaychurch.com dot
AU. Have a blessed day.