Biblical Pattern for Genuine Fellowship

The Bible calls us to exhort, encourage and stir up one another. In fact, there are several verses in the New Testament that instructs the believers to “one-another”. For instance, “Love one another”, “Forgive one another”, “Pray for one another” and so on. And the fact of the matter is that it's simply not possible for us to practice all these “one-anothering” by meeting once a week inside a building with all the people in the pews facing towards the pulpit an hour or two. The solution for us is to emulate the healthy practice of the church in the book of Acts – to meet informally and daily from house to house.

Yes, in verse 46 it does say that they met in the temple too. And that was because these believers initially still observed the hours of Jewish worship. For instance, in Acts 3:1 we read of Peter and John going up to the temple at the “ninth hour” – the hour of prayer (3 pm) for the Jews. Another possible or additional reason for them to meet at the temple (courtyard) was so they could listen to the apostles’ teachings corporately. Whatever the reason, we should note that their activities in the temple were different from that in their homes where they broke bread and ate food with joy and gladness of heart as they prayed and exhort and edified one another. So genuine fellowship and building up of each other among the believers happened as a lifestyle wherever they existed.

Churches meeting in big numbers in large halls or buildings should realize the need for a genuine fellowship among believers to foster love, unity and building of each other up – something which isn’t possible in a crowd. The power of the early church should be recovered today by simply emulating them. Hence, if it’s not possible for big-sized churches to dismantle completely and meet in smaller groups at homes then they should, at least, invest their efforts by restructuring the church into smaller groups and give impetus to their meetings from house to house during week days. Having said so, it cannot be denied that such churches tend to treat the larger meetings as THE church and the smaller meetings that take place throughout the week simply as activities categorized under some label, usually groups that are geared to make efforts to make the larger meetings grand and successful. For instance, if one is qualified enough to take up a task in the smaller meetings then he or she would be gradually promoted to function in the larger meetings; everything geared up for the larger meetings on Sunday morning. Essentially, in the New Testament, especially in the Book of Acts, the exact opposite was actually true.

The church that met at homes in smaller numbers was a full-fledged genuine church complete and cohesive in every sense.

It's no doubt that large gatherings could enhance worship celebrations and preaching ministries, etc., but when it comes to koinonia fellowship and other activities where body life takes place, meeting in homes in smaller numbers is the most effective pattern of the New Testament for us to follow. Watchman Nee taught that, “Every church after God’s own heart bears the stamp of ‘one another’ on all its life and activity” (The Normal Christian Church Life, Indian Edition pg 47).

Therefore, church leadership ought to motivate believers to meet with one another regularly in order to encourage and pray for one another for mutual edification. Such intentional meetings could also give birth or enhance other ministries like neighborhood evangelism, visiting, reaching out to the poor and needy and many other similar projects and ventures all aimed at advancing the Kingdom of God outside the four walls of our church buildings.  

Heb 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, v25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

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The Power of the Word of God

When we think about the power of God we immediately think of the Holy Spirit and rightly so because the power of God is directly related to the Holy Spirit, “You’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,”  “But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Acts 1:8; Luke 24:49).

In the book of Acts we find several instances where this power of the Holy Spirit was manifested when the believers met together for prayers. Today, some churches will at times organize “revival meetings” with the expectation that they’d experience the manifestation and power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the believers that there’d be repentance and renewal taking place. But we’d lose on many counts what the Holy Spirit can do in and through our lives when we limit Him and His power to only certain types of meetings. What we don’t realize is that we can experience the same power of the Holy Spirit daily through one important medium God has ordained for us. And that medium is the immutable Word of God. The same power of God which works through the Holy Spirit also works through His Word - the Holy Scriptures which we call the Bible. In fact, it’s the power of the Holy Spirit that also works through the Word of God. 

The apostle Paul realized this power hidden in the Word of God and boldly declares, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Rom 1:16. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Paul doesn’t say that the gospel contains the power of God but the gospel itself is the power of God that works salvation in the lives of those who accept it. No wonder when Peter preached under the unction of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost three thousand people became desperate to get saved. The Word he preached was so powerful that the hearers felt it like an arrow piercing their hearts which caused them to run to Peter and cried out in utter desperation, “What must we do?” Such is the power of the Word. We ought to pray to God to revive such ministry in our pulpits again in our days. 

Consider again the powerful impact the preaching and teaching of the Word had on the Israelites that had just returned back to Jerusalem from exile.  

Neh 8:8, 9 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. 9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.

When the people heard the words of the Law which was read and explained by Ezra and his companion they began to mourn and to weep out of conviction. We could say that there was some sort of revival that took place that day and it was because of the ministry of the Word of God. Such was the weeping and the mourning that the leaders had to calm them down. And that’s the power of the Word of God in action. We, therefore, ought to be conscious of the fact that everytime we read and meditate upon the Word the power of God would work in us and everytime we preach and teach the Word we should expect the power of God to touch and transform peoples’ lives. For the Gospel is the power of God. The revival stories that we read about and which took place under the ministries of God’s servants like Jonathan Edwards, R. A. Torrey and others were basically because of the ministry of the Word of God. Such revivals bring about a genuine and long-lasting transformation in the lives of those being ministered to.  

If there’s one thing lacking in the pulpit today then it is this - the dearth of anointed and systematic preaching and teaching of the Word of God. Not just some emotionally charged up rhetorics and cliches of words but solidly grounded and sound teaching from the Scripture breathed by the Holy Spirit that brings about a genuine transformation in the lives of our people. 

As we seek the power of the Holy Spirit may we not underestimate the power of the Word of God. Remember: The Gospel is the power of God. 

Blessings,

Reuben Pradhan

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Privileged to Teach

During my time in Nepal, I used to teach in a Bible school regularly. I basically taught on Spiritual Growth and the New Testament Church. However, one day the director of the institution asked me to do the survey of the Bible (the Old Testament) with the students. While preparing notes for the subject I was exposed to the historical and cultural background and other relevant facts about the various books of the Bible. This was my first time teaching on the survey of the Bible and I taught on seven different books of the Old Testament, which was quite fair for the starting, I thought. Going through the detailed introductions and accounts of each one of those seven books and making an overall assessment was quite a laborious and mentally tiring task. However, the payoff was fabulous. In my 20 years of studying the Bible, there were things I was discovering for the first time. Thus, I could safely say that I was teaching myself more than the students.

David Pawson in his extensive work entitled, “Unlocking the Bible – A unique overview of the whole Bible”, speaks about the three different approaches to reading the Bible. The first one is the verse-centered approach (self) in which we look for a word for ourselves. In this approach “we read through until a verse fits our situation”. He humorously calls it ‘the horoscope method of Bible reading’. The second approach is the passage-centered approach (others) where we “read the Bible mainly for the sake of other people”. Of course, this is popular today with preachers and teachers. The last one is the “best approach” in which we read the whole book rather than just parts of it. The author reinforces that, “only by doing this can we really understand what God is saying to us through it” (page 612 – 614). May the Lord increase our spiritual appetite to read the Bible and the things therein in its totality. 

Nowadays, an average English Bible contains an introduction and outlines and other information at the beginning of each book of the Bible. Sadly, most of us avoid reading them. I believe a lot of effort has been put into it to make it available for us. Though at times it might appear dull and unnecessary to read it, it actually helps us to know what we are reading with a clearer understanding and perspective. For example, there could be those who are totally oblivious to the fact that some of what we call the “minor” prophets actually lived and ministered before some of the “major” prophets. Similar is the case in the New Testament. In other words, several books in the Bible are not in their chronological order. And as long as we are unaware of this fact it’ll give us the obvious wrong impression that the events in the Bible occurred historically and chronologically according to the present arrangement of the books in the Bible. Of course, such issues aren’t going to shake our faith but as both a Bible student and a teacher it would help a lot to gather some knowledge about the historical background and other related facts about the books in the Bible. Therefore, adding some Bible commentaries, dictionaries or Bible encyclopedias to our library would certainly enhance our Bible study and research. In fact, with a computer and an internet connection, one can have a whole Bible library without paying a dime. I was shocked one day when I saw the price of some of the Bible commentaries and encyclopedias, which came in volumes in a Bible store. In India, the price of such volumes of books would actually add up to a monthly salary for some. I was so excited at that time knowing that I had those Bible resources and many others more in my computer which came along with some Bible software I was using. Of course, we may all be aware of e-sword. Another one that I enjoy using is The Word. Then of course there are many others, not to mention the availability of countless online Bible study tools. Of course, the natural roaming of your fingers across the pages of those books, highlighting some phrases and sentences here and there with colorful pencils and scribbling a little note in the corner of the pages of the hard copy has its own different feel altogether. Whatever the case, it’ll help a lot to have a mini Bible library of your own whether hard copies or soft. Mybible is another excellent app for both android and ios devices. 

Today we spend countless hours of time on our mobile phones and other devices when in fact we could have spent at least even half of it in studying our Bibles and discover truths that would bolster our faith and others’ too. At times, after logging out of some of those sites I look at the clock and relent how much time I had just wasted and wish if I had only spent the same amount of time in reading the Word of God or talking to Him in prayer or yet reading other Christian books for my spiritual edification. 

The world is infiltrating the church today in a much deeper and insidious manner than we could have ever thought. Most Christians today have only religion and less or sadly even nothing of Christ and His truth. And though many factors account for such a pathetic state of the church, much of it is also because of the lack of proper teaching in the church. Pastors today look upon themselves more as preachers and evangelists than teachers and thus miss out much on the ministry of teaching. In listing out the qualification of an elder or a pastor in 1st Tim 3, Paul clearly mentions the ability to teach as one of the prerequisites. Teaching requires a lot of effort in studying, researching, meditation and of course prayer. I wonder if laziness could therefore be the reason why some pastors shirk away from the ministry of teaching. I was in a city pastors’ meeting in a certain town and discussion was making the round as to who would do the teaching sessions during the morning and afternoon sessions at the upcoming annual conference. Most of the pastors decline from taking responsibility with the excuse that they were preachers and not teachers. I wonder if they had forgotten that a pastor should be “able to teach.” Such conferences also tend to portray the evening meetings as the main highlight of the day where they have a preacher to stimulate the emotion and tickle the ears of the people. “More crowd, more noise and more coverage and therefore the allurement to prefer to rather be a preacher than a teacher”, is what one of my pastor-friend critiqued. And I think that he was right. 

Over and over again, the apostle Paul in his epistles, especially that of Timothy and Titus urges the leaders to be diligent to teach the church the whole counsel and the sound doctrine of the Word of God. Would the apostle have something different to say to us today? We need to get back to the school of discipleship, the school of meditating in the Word of God at the feet of Christ. We need to revive the ministry of teaching in our churches today. The Great Commission is all about making disciples (Mt 28:19,20) and this task involves a thorough, systematic teaching of the Word of God. Without the ministry of teaching it’s impossible to make disciples of people. And as pastors if we fail here then we have failed in our pastoral ministry. Therefore, it’s time we jump to our feet and get back to our Bibles, to those Bible resources and literature, and with all the getting we need to get the Holy Spirit’s anointing and revelation to study and to teach. 

Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. 

Let us be like Ezra! Amen! 

Blessings, 

Reuben Pradhan 

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