House Church is Fellowship


Fellowship is a big thing with God. From Genesis through Revelation, the word or concept appears.

God wants to fellowship with us. He and Adam and Eve strolled in the garden in the cool of the evening. He loved and talked with Enoch, Abraham, Moses, David and the prophets. John says, “Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3)

The fellowship offering in Leviticus is also called the peace offering––making peace between man and God. Jesus is our peace offering, making peace between us and God, by His sacrifice.

You can't help but get the sense that fellowship between Jesus and his disciples was very important. That is how He discipled them: Talking as they walked down the dusty roads day by day, often sleeping out under the stars and, finally, the resurrected Jesus cooking fish on the beach for tired disciples who had had no luck on their own. It was a good, at times carefree, life that He and his twelve men shared.

If you are born anew into God's kingdom, you have experienced the love and joy of this fellowship.

And God wants us to fellowship with one another. Acts 2:42 reports that the first thing after the establishment of the church on the day of Pentecost, “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' 

 of the church on the day of Pentecost, “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching,and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals, and to prayer.”

God's kingdom cannot influence the world if the citizens are scattered and have little to do with each other. What could be accomplished?

That is why Jesus speaks of his church as a body. A body is connected. It functions intelligently and in order. Paul and Peter and James and John spend a lot of time telling us how to live together. If we disparage a brother or sister, we hurt some one close to God's heart. If we help a fellow believer in need, God is pleased because He loves him or her.

Jesus says in Revelation 3:20, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” That is what we do in house church. We come in and share a meal together as friends. And often, it seems, He is there with us.