To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken throughout the whole world. For God is my witness whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his son. that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers making requests if by some means now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established that is that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me Now I do not want you to be unaware brethren that I have often planned to come to you but was hindered until now that I might have some fruit among you also just as among other Gentiles. We've been considering, as I said, the attitude or mindset of the Apostle Paul as he's approaching this ministry that he's going to be conducting with this young church in Rome and with these new believers in Rome. We may assume that this attitude that Paul took upon himself as he's expressing his entry to the people in Rome is the same attitude that he took with him in every place that he went to minister to the people and at every place that he went in response to God's call upon his life to take the gospel into those places and that's important because here is Paul who was one of the most significant leaders that the church has ever known and he is showing us the way in which we should be taking and the manner in which we should be considering our entrance before one another how we are to come before one another as we seek to minister to one another, and how we are to gauge and go before those in the world that God has placed us. What's the attitude? What's the spirit? What's the mindset we're supposed to have? And again, uniquely here, Paul is going to a church. He's going to a place where the Lord has produced the fruit of individuals who respond to the gospel who have confessed their sins who believed in Jesus Christ and they've been transformed and they've been regenerate and he wants to go and experience life with them and he wants to minister to them and his entrance into their presence shows us something of the way in which we should be engaging and entering before one another and ministering to one another and so off of that we've made a number of observations and the first thing that we observed and now we're doing a bit of review and I mentioned this to someone just this week I keep going back and doing these reviews because each time I do them I find myself edified and I'm gonna keep mentioning them until I think we're ready to move on but I'm slowing down in this passage because it's blessing me And speaking to me, you might understand why. I don't know how you have conceived your life, but for the last 30 years I've thought of myself as a minister to the body of Christ. I recognize that God has called me to a unique and central point in my life to minister to other brothers and sisters in Christ. I've not always had it done it in the right way or with the right attitude. And so I find in these things something correcting me, but also something encouraging me. something saying, these are the things that are important. Then as I look at them and I see them, I really recognize that this is not just a word for pastors. This is not for a person whose profession it is to minister to the body of Christ in that way, but this is God's word for all of us. This is an expression of what he's wanting to identify in our fellowship and our lives together. And so I want to go slow through this for my own sake, but I want to go through it slowly for your sakes as well. The first thing that we noticed here is that as Paul approached those in the church and those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ, he approaches them with a mindset that these are the people of God. These individuals are individuals who have entered into a covenant relationship with God. These are individuals who are loved of God and they're called of God. And as a result, they are heirs of God's productive grace, the outpouring of God's grace, seeking to shape them and mold them and to benefit them and to lead them into conformity to Christ. And these are also heirs of that peace with God that brings God's presence into our life and opens up to us, you might say, that broad space of wholeness with Him in which we're to develop our life and to live out our lives. There's nothing better than, as a child, for example, living their life under the watchful eye of their parents. If you want to see a peaceful setting for a child, Have a parent at the window, let's say, washing the ditches, just inside the house, and just outside the window. Have the child knowing that's where the parent is, playing in their sandbox. That's peace for that child. It's living their life knowing they're under the eye of a parent that's watching, caring, and keeping over them. And that's peace for the Christian child as well. And it's what we're heirs to. given our life to Jesus Christ, we've been reconciled to God the Father, He's watching over us, He's desiring our best, He wants to pour out His rich graces upon us, He wants us to live in this context of settled peace so that we can be nourished and grow and develop, we should approach one another in the church and fellow believers with this conception, that they are the people of God, that they are members of God's family and God's household, that they are deeply loved ones, They are those that He has called, and theirs is the life of grace, and theirs is the life of enjoying to be lived in the wholeness of God. And what it means is we should be elevating our concept of one another as we go before and are with one another. And sometimes this is difficult because, well, we get to know one another, right? And we begin to see things in our lives that we're disappointed in or we're not expecting. We still have this mindset. Paul has not lost this mindset of the church although he's been ministering the church for over 20 years and he's seen it all. and he's experienced the disappointment. He's addressed on a number of different occasions the conflicts that are going in the church. He's writing this letter, having been in Corinth one last time, having had to come to them because of the division and the struggles and the issues in their life, having had to confront them and correct them. And the second time that he writes them, he writes them and says, now, do I need to come to you? I don't really wanna come to you because if I come to you, I'm gonna have to come to you with sternness and correction. And he's gone to Corinth now and he's departing from Corinth. that he still has this mindset of the body of Christ in the church. He still sees them this way. Individuals called of God means that we're to elevate our concept of one another. We're to see each other bearing the regal or royal lineage of those who are the sons and daughters of the Most High God. We are to regard one another with this elevated view. Second thing we see is this. Paul not only recognized these people as the people of God, but he was also, and I think this is because the Spirit of God was working in his life. He wasn't engaging them just in his flesh. He wasn't engaging just on the basis of these are really impressive people. He was seeing them as the Spirit of Christ saw them as the redeemed of God that God was working on to perfect and to purify in order that one day he might present them unto himself as a pure and spotless bride. And so when Paul sees in this way, he not only sees them as the people of God, but he's glad that it's so. He's thankful that that's the case. it's actually a source of great joy and identity with them when he finds them he's happy to find the people of God and he rejoices to find the people of God and he immediately embraces them into fellowship again this is important for ourselves he's not reluctant or jealous to grant them this status as the people of God and I have to say that there is in my mind a great correction for us in this as well these are the reasons we should rejoice in fellowship with one another And I think to some extent the calculation changes with us nowadays. In fact, the more that there's more upheaval in our society around us, the more that the society tends to be going to extreme, falling into ditches on the left and the right in terms of opinion and madness, the more that we try to find individuals that are prejudicial to whatever unique madness we're prejudicial to, right? So we wanna find individuals who maybe they just hold the same political views that we have. Maybe we'll have fellowship if we find out if they voted for the same person that we voted for. Maybe we want to identify with a person who thinks the same things are crazy that we think are crazy around us, and oh, we rejoice to find it so. That's not our fellowship. That's not what Paul's rejoicing over. I have had the wonderful privilege that has taken me to a number of different countries. And in that place, we've worked with brothers and sisters to share with them how it is that they can share Christ with others and what Christ is doing in their life. We've sung together. Oftentimes, we'll get together and we can't speak the same language, but we'll search for a tune that we know, a hymn that we know together, some song that we know together, and then we'll find ourselves singing it because we know what the words are they're singing, and we find fellowship in that way. But you know, what's interesting is, They don't share the same political views I share. We'll find out. I've been with brothers and sisters and been surprised to find out that they're actually quite committed in their socialist ideas. And they're one person I remember just before COVID struck, I was in Mexico City and all the brothers, there was one particular brother that particularly enjoyed me. We kept enjoying the ministry we had in Christ and it was wonderful fellowship. And he gave me a little fedora that he brought with him because I admired his hat. So he bought me a fedora and then later on in the day the brothers are sitting around and joking and they told us well you know one of the things you need about this brother is that he's a leader in his community and he's a very strong communist I said what? he's a very strong communist well I was having fellowship with him I didn't know whether I should continue no I did I knew to continue that fellowship with him because that's where our hearts were bound to one another wasn't that we shared those views It can even become a problem. We can step away from this as well. We can decide, well, I'll have fellowship with another believer, but I first need to make sure that they share the same theological views that I share. I need to know whether they're an Arminian, or whether they're a Calvinist. I need to know what their view is on eschatology. Do they believe in the pre-tribulational rapture, or do they believe in the rapture at all? Do they believe in the pre-millennium, or are they post-millennial, or whatever it is. And so we've got to find that out. We've got to find out just what groove they're lining up in, and then we'll Oh, rejoice to find that they're children of God. I'm not saying that theology isn't important. In fact, this whole book is a wonderful theological treatise. I do find, by the way, that there are individuals who, according to whatever their suppositions are, kind of force and insinuate some of their theological positions through what Paul is writing here, so they can be backed up by Paul, and sometimes they're right, I think, and sometimes I think they're pressing it a little bit too hard, but I would say it's dangerous, as they press harder to that, then to decide that that's the subscription, and that's what they're looking for in order to find the people that they're gonna rejoice to find it so. find their faith and their testimony in their solid belief in the determinism, divine determinism, or their solid belief in free will. That's not the basis on which we find fellowship with one another. It's just that they are heirs of the grace of God, loved of God, called of God, brought forward by God to live in peace and to have the life of Christ shaped in them and they put their faith in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. rejoice in that. It's not because of their political position. It's not even necessarily because they dot the I and cross the T of their theology in the exact same way that we dot the I and cross the T. It's not that. I have a couple illustrations that popped in my mind. I remember hearing the story of an individual who was a missionary. I think it was in Turkey. He talked about the fact, you know, in Turkey, we don't try to find and meet a person on the street, and if we find that they're a Christian, we don't stop first to find out whether they're Pentecostal or Baptist, whether we should really be communing with them. We find a person in Turkey that identifies as a Christian and believes that Christ is saving the Lord. We don't look to see what their theological position is. We look to find some place on the side of the road that we can pull off and put our arms around one another and weep and rejoice and pray in the name of the Lord Jesus together because there's so few of us. I have a brother that I met many years ago in my first church by the name of Peter Wichrock. And Peter Wichrock was a colonel in the Canadian Air Force. And during the Korean War, he had actually been a part of the process in North Korea in which they were trying to resolve the conflict that was taking place between North Korea and South Korea and settle all the things. And in that place where the United Nations had sent their various dignitaries, of which he was one of them from Canada, there were also dignitaries from communist countries, including a colonel from Russia. and so they would meet together in this place and they would have their long protracted and it took years as they were negotiating and talking about these things on one occasion he was in his bedroom having met this colonel from Russia and he heard a knock it was late at night and he heard a knock on his door and here was this Russian colonel Russian colonel gestured to him they couldn't speak to one another they didn't speak the same language that he wanted to come in and then when the Russian colonel came in he motioned to a table in the room and Peter sat down and the man brought out a bottle of wine and put it on the table and then he brought out a loaf of bread and then he began to use his hands like this and to say things and Peter realized that he was pretending with his hands that he was having a Bible before him he was wanting to read scripture and so Peter went and found his Bible and opened it up he realized this man wanted to have communion with him Two of them, he poured out the wine, and they poured out the bread, and then Peter read from 1 Corinthians, and from the gospel accounts, the story of the communion meal that Christ had with his disciples, and that the bread represented the body of Christ, and the cup represented his blood that was shed. And if he read over a portion of it, he prayed, and then the man quoted from heart scripture that he knew, and he prayed over the cup, and they drank and ate the bread together, and he said it was the most beautiful communion service he'd ever had in his life. because they were glad to have it so. They knew Christ and that they were changed people and they were his children. next thing we see here is that Paul came to minister to them as a result of this understanding of who they are he came and he approaches ministry to them while vigilantly praying for them he unceasingly always of the two words he uses pray for you and so he poured out his prayers and his longing for them before he spoke to inform he was speaking with God and interceding and this wasn't merely the prayers they prayed in his own natural strength these are prayers that the Spirit of God was giving them as he looked at their life and considered their life and the needs of their life and the needs of that new Christian community and uniquely in this place of Rome and with the unique challenges that they faced in the heart of the empire and as he prayed for them and as the Spirit moved him in prayer he longed to be with them that's the next thing we see but what we said here at this first point is that we have to let prayer and the Spirit produced by the Spirit mold the ministries that we have to one another We have to be praying for one another. And as he's praying for him, the fourth thing we saw, and we spoke about this last week, is what grew in Paul was a longing to be with him. He wanted to be with him, and he says, I want to impart to you some spiritual gift. What Paul is saying here is, not I want to impart to you something special about myself. I want to give you a piece of my abilities and my talents, and I've been doing this a long time, so I know how it's supposed to be done, and I want to come to show you how this Christian life is supposed to be done. That's not what he's saying. He's praying, he's praying in the Spirit. The Spirit of God is renewing in him a sense of his own power and his own life. He's sharpening Paul and the very gifts that he wants Paul to use before the body of Christ. He's praying for these individuals and recognizing their needs. Paul's heart is growing with the desire to be among them, to impart the life of the Spirit, the very life of the Lord Jesus that is developing and shaping within him to those that he goes to. It's not, I want to impart to you my life. I want to give to you what I am. I want to give you a spiritual gift, he says, something that the Spirit is drawing up within me. He longs to be with him for that reason. What we said last week is a professing Christian in our day and age who has a decreasing desire to be with believers and to experience the fellowship of the church often comes to such a state because they're not praying for other believers. they're not pouring their heart out in the spirit for the body of Christ as you pray for one another no matter what the challenges are and as we've said before Paul saw all kinds of problems in the church. As he prayed for them, Paul grew with an overwhelming desire, as the Spirit was leading him in that prayer, to be with those he was praying for, to part his life with them. Just think about that. You encounter an individual that somehow you've become estranged from. Maybe they've offended you, maybe you've had a problem with them, and maybe they've departed from fellowship with you, and you see them sometime later, and you know good riddance was your mind. And so when you see them again in a grocery store, you're kind of shocked, and a little bit, you don't know what to do here. Well, that's what happened. And that's the experience that would be natural, that would be understandable. Let's say you departed though instead you prayed for them. You poured out your life for them. You said, oh God, I want you to still bless their life. I want you to speak into their life. I want you to send people to them that will minister the grace and the life of the Lord Jesus before them so that you can work in their lives in your time, in your way, at your pace, to bring them completely to yourself. And now you encounter that person. Be a little different. That person's the one you've been praying for. The very thing you've been praying for, you think, I want to share that life with them. I want Jesus to pour out for me upon them as a source of correction or healing. God, you speak as you will. Well, Paul prayed for the people and as a result, Paul wanted to be with the people. And what holds the church together? What really holds us together? Commitment to pray for one another. Now that means, by the way, we've got to get to know one another. We have to spend some time with one another. We should inquire about what's happening in each other's lives. It also means that over the prayers we want to pause to consider what is the highest and best thing that we could pray for them. If we don't know, what's the best thing we could pray for them? What's the highest good we should desire for them? Pray that upon them and pray over them. Now that's a far as we've come so far in our messages on this passage and now we see here in verse 12 that Paul is going to make a correction you know as he's writing out his letter there's no white out there's no ability to go back and change the wording once it's down it's down but Paul as he's written this down all of a sudden realizes oh they may think that I have some patronizing desire just to come and share my spiritual gifts with them and so he puts the word that is And that word, that is, is a correction. Here, I kind of want to, and I'm glad he wasn't able to go back and correct it because there's wonderful instruction that we get in verse 11 where he says, I long to come to you that I might impart to you some spiritual gift. But now he says, that is. In other words, I want to restate this a little bit. I want you to not misunderstand me. My desire is that I could come upon you, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. My real desire is not for me to come and just be a one-way street in which I pour out upon you all that God is doing in my life. I want to come and receive what God is doing in your life. I want to share a mutual faith with you. There's a good title for this sermon. It's Mutual Faith. Another good title for our sermon. The Communion of the Saints. Desire for me to come and pour out upon you what the Spirit is doing in my life as I'm praying for you and to share the life of the Savior who's rising up through me in my prayers for you. And as God is working your life, I want to receive back from you what God is doing. So Paul here, fifth, humbly desires the reciprocal reward of fellowship in the Spirit with fellow believers. He's making it clear that he's not coming as an apostle to lord it over them or to enrich them with his own self. He sees them as equals in the endowment of spiritual life. His prayers have made him long to receive from them a ministry of grace that God is placing upon them and to be a beneficiary of the work that God is doing in their lives. Paul knows that he has something to offer those that are in Rome, but he knows what he has to offer them is not himself. When he speaks of a spiritual gift, he's not claiming it as his identity. It's something the Spirit of God is doing in his life, and he knows all he has to offer them is what the Spirit of God is doing in his life, and in the same way he wants to receive from them what the Spirit of God is doing in their lives, and he's confident that the Spirit of God is at work in their life. And this is important as well, because it seems to me that in this very way, the church oftentimes has got it wrong in our day and age. We have this kind of striation between those who are the ministers and those who are serving and those who are on the stage. And it seems to be growing as you get greater and greater churches and bigger and bigger churches. The bigger the church is, oftentimes, the more the church and its ministry surround fewer and fewer people who have greater and greater abilities and talents to hold people's attention and have certain dynamism. And our individuals can get together three and four times a week to perfect their music abilities. And they've got it all home. and everybody else comes to witness it and to be participants in receiving these things and so you got the givers and the receivers and both of them have it wrong because one person thinks it's a one-way street I give and the other one thinks it's a one-way street I get and I'm encouraged and I get it home because I got all this as a result the fact is neither one of us are truly enriched because there's nothing more alienating than living in a one-way street There's nothing more lonely. Can you imagine how lonely life would have been for Paul if Paul thought everywhere he went, he went there to share his gift, to provide his ministry, to service people with what the Spirit of God was doing in his life? It just flowed out from him? An isolated and lonely life that would be? This was some years ago. We had a gentleman who attended our church. He started coming. He had a certain argument, idea that he thought he had found in the New Testament that he wanted to share with everybody else. And it was the only idea he had. It was just one string on his guitar, one string on his musical instrument. It was just one key on the piano that he wanted to hit all the time. And he wanted to be with us to hit that key. We didn't know this initially. Part of the way I figured it out was that when I'd preach, he would just sit there still as a lump on a log, but if I ever said anything that came close to that note, he'd say, Amen! Loud too, Amen! So this went on for about a year, and of course we kind of began to figure out what his idea was, but everybody was patient with him, and kind to him, and gracious with him, and then after about a year of this, he started causing a lot of problems, and he started speaking quite ill of the members of the fellowship, and I went to visit him, and he had a complaint against me which was I said amen every time you say something on this position I say amen to what you say and you've never said amen out loud anything I've said. So I've come here to give you the great amen of the Christian faith and you're not meeting me with it. And then it was, you know, the people in your church are the little scripturally ignorant people I know, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so eventually I had to actually suggest to the man that if that's the spirit in which he had come, just to give, just to impart, just to let everybody know this one little kernel of truth that was gonna be the moment of enlightenment for them all. He said, if that's why you've come, then you probably shouldn't remain here. I'm sorry to say you should go along. And one of the things, by the way, he boasted with me is he'd never been asked to leave any other church. And I said, now listen, you're gonna have to change it now. Next church you're gonna go to, you're gonna have to tell them you were asked to leave. Because you weren't willing to live in fellowship. It was a one-way street. Well, that's an extreme example of the situation. And by the way, that gentleman died alone. alienated from all his children, alienated from his family, died all alone, living on a one-way street. It's not what God plans for us. It's not what God desires for us. To live together and grow old together, experience life together, and to minister to one another. You know, as Paul is praying for the church, as he's recognizing their needs and their weaknesses, and as he's pouring out prayer for them, God also opens up before his eyes what he wants to do in that church, and what his plan is for the church, and what he is doing in the church. Paul doesn't just see the negatives. He sees the positives, and he's there to minister to them in the areas where they need help, but he's also recognizing God still is doing something in the life of this church. Look at Philippians chapter one, verses three through six. we've said at the beginning of most of Paul's letters he begins as we've already said in the last point he begins with praying for them here Paul tells the church in Philippi which by the way he's writing while he's in prison and he's also writing them because there's some conflicts going on in their church he writes this verse 3 of chapter 1 of Philippians I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine making requests for you with all joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. As you pray for individuals, God will oftentimes reveal to you some weakness or some need in their life, and it'll lead you to pray for that, but also God will let you see the potential. God will let you gratefully see and begin to understand the work that he's already doing in their life without you. He just wants you to nourish and pray over it so you can be a part of that. You can witness it and experience it yourself. The work that the Spirit has begun in them. So He'll call you not only to speak into their lives at times, but He'll also call you to listen, to discover and see what He's doing and to experience the life that Jesus is exuding out from them as He works in them. Paul is approaching these individuals with that kind of profound humility. He knows that all the good he has to offer is that the Spirit of Christ is doing through him, and he knows they have good like that to offer him as well. Well, let's make some further observations here. Actually, from that one idea, let me make three observations. Hopefully I can do this quickly for you. number one it's this, Paul is looking as he approaches other Christians observations that we've just said, this idea that they have a gift to offer him, he has a gift to offer them of what the Spirit is doing in their lives and the first point is this, as we see this and consider this and this is a wonderful point that's made by Martin Lloyd-Jones in his treatise on this passage It's a long sermon. I've listened to it. If you think I'm going slow through Romans, just if you ever get a hold of any of Martin Lloyd-Jones' series. It was about 13 years or something like that. 14 years that he went through the book of Romans. Didn't finish it either. You take a verse like this and spend three weeks in it. I'm not going to do that. I'm tempted to because I want to say more. but wonderfully what he points out as he's going through it. This one key point I think is most important that when Paul was going to enjoy fellowship with other believers we learn here what Paul is looking for in that fellowship. He's looking for the presence and the dynamic life of the Holy Spirit upon them. He's looking to encounter the Spirit of Christ on their lives. That's how he identifies Christian fellowship with them. That's what it is that he's wanting to experience. And there's a lesson in that for us that we're gonna need to talk about. Christian fellowship is not us holding, like we said, theological positions in common, important, not holding political positions in common, not so important. It's imparting to one another the shared life of the spirit of Christ who's resting upon us and dwelling within us. Look at Acts chapter 19. Paul uses this as an example. Acts chapter 19. It's the story of Paul as he's going again from Corinth and he arrives in Ephesus. I'm going to read to you verses 1 through 7 of Acts chapter 19 and make a very careful point of this. This point that Paul was looking for the Holy Spirit and His presence in the life of new believers and those who profess faith. That is what he's expecting. That is what he's anticipating. That's what he identifies as the fellowship that he's seeking. This fellowship in the Spirit. In Acts chapter 19 we read this beginning of verse 1 and I'll read through verse 7. And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples, he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? I'm sure he didn't walk through the door saying that. He's come into the presence of these individuals. He's met them. They're conversing with one another. He's taking notes of what the experience is like. And then it turns to an important question. Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And so they said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. We don't know anything of this work that you're speaking of the Holy Spirit. And he said to them, into what then were you baptized? And they said into John's baptism. then Paul said John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance saying to people that they should believe on him who would come after him that is on Christ Jesus when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and when Paul had laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came upon them they spoke with tongues and prophesied now the men were about twelve and all so here we have this account the story of Paul has gone to Ephesus. He's probably traveled to Ephesus from Corinth. Somebody that Paul has probably sent out from his own ministry and that he's touched in Corinth has traveled so far as Ephesus and he's met this group of individuals and he's supposed that maybe these individuals were followers of Jesus Christ. He received some bit of information, intelligence about them. He's carried that intelligence back to Paul. Paul, there's some people ready to receive you in Ephesus who are followers and disciples of Jesus Christ. And so there's a little place where Paul knows now he's got a little bit of foothold where he can go into that city and begin working among people who are people of peace and who know the Savior. And from there, build the ministry up in Ephesus. And so he goes into the city expecting to find true believers in Jesus Christ. But he arrives there, he finds that that's not the case. These supposed disciples were not followers of Jesus. They were not even familiar with the teaching of Christ or the work of Christ. They were only at this point in time familiar with the teachings and baptisms of John the Baptist. In other words, they were still in the Old Testament waiting for the Savior to be revealed. What was it that tipped Paul off to this case? How did Paul discern? I don't think we have the fellowship of Christians here. What was it that tipped him off? There was an absence of the communion of the believer in the Spirit. He didn't recognize or see the life of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, resting upon these men as he conversed and spoke with them. Something was missing. Did you not receive the Holy Spirit? You believed when you were baptized. We have not even heard of that work. What baptism did you receive? Well, the baptism of John the Baptist. We've gone that far. Well, do you know who he spoke of and what he proclaimed and who he said was coming? Who is this, sir? The saver of all men, the Messiah, and that he has come. His name is Jesus Christ. And John gave witness to him when he baptized him because he saw the spirit coming down upon him like a dove. And he heard the voice out of heaven of God saying, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. And that one, John baptized with repentance, showing us our need to be washed from and cleansed from our sins. And that one who came, entered into that baptism to identify with us, but he carried that identification all the way to the cross. He lived a sinless life. And on the cross, he died for our sins. And he demonstrated himself to be the one who can save us from our sins, because he rose again from the grave. And now he calls on men to be baptized in his name, in belief and trust in the salvation that he's brought. not gone far enough, you've repented but you've not believed. They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and as they were baptized, Paul, as we do, as they came up, they were baptized, Paul laid his hands upon them to pray for them and the Spirit of God was poured out upon them. That's what Paul was looking for. Paul was looking for and expecting to find in the fellowship the saints, not people who agreed with him in every point, not that. The people who had by faith in Jesus Christ received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit was moving out from them and they were receiving one another in fellowship. How do you know if that's there? Think about it. How did Paul know? Well these people have the Spirit, these people don't have the Spirit. I think we could go to 1 Corinthians chapter two, verse two, and we could kind of have an idea of what it is that Paul was looking for. There, Paul talks about what his desire was when he went to the people in Corinth. And there, he tells them what it is that he wants to know from them in fellowship with them, and what he wants them to know from him in fellowship with them. What does he want to receive from them, and what he wants to impart to them. And he says to them, I determine to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. When I came among you, I wanted you to know Christ, and I wanted you to know the saving work of Christ, and what did I want to know in return from you? I wanted to see what Christ was doing in your life, and I wanted to see the evidence of the work of Christ bringing you into salvation from you. I want to know nothing else but this. That's the heart of Christian's fellowship. When we read the New Testament, when we understand what the work of the Holy Spirit is in the life of the believer, we understand from what Jesus teaches us about the Holy Spirit in John chapter 14, and John 15, and John 16, that the Holy Spirit comes to us to be another of the same kind, to be another Jesus, to bring to us the life of the Lord Jesus, and to bring his indwelling presence within us. Jesus said, I'm gonna depart from you and you'll see me no more, but I'm gonna come to you. I'm gonna be away from you, but I'm gonna be in you. What's he talking about? Because I'm gonna give you my spirit and he's gonna bring to you my life. The Holy Spirit's job is to make the Lord Jesus real to us. It's to bring the life and the presence and the power of Christ to us. And Paul is saying, I want to be and I expect to meet with people who are Jesus. It's coming out from their life. It's a part of their expressions. It's the name that's primarily on their lips. It's the thing they want to part and speak of in His work, in His presence. I want to know Christ among you. I want to know Christ among you. I want experience. I want to experience Christ among you. And that's what the Holy Spirit comes to do. How could I kind of explain this? An example that came to my mind was my brother-in-law a number of years ago was a paramedic in Northern California. And there were occasions when there would be somebody would come and they'd call upon the ambulance and they would take the person to a hospital and they would discover early on that this person was not under significant distress. that this was not a serious issue and at that time he wanted to speak to him if it wasn't a serious issue and he wanted to encourage them in some way and so one of the things he would say is first tell them look everything's fine nothing's happening your vitals are all well everything's good you're gonna go and you're gonna get a good report when you get to the hospital and so I just want to put you at peace and then he would ask them a question say listen I have a question for you I'm a Christian do you know Jesus And if the person said, well, yeah, I know Jesus. Then his next question was, don't you just love him? And if they gave a heart, oh, I love him. Oh, yes, I just love him. Let's pray together. Let's pray together, because he loves you and he wants him. If they said, well, you know, and they were a little dispassionate, a little bit put off by the, well, of course, well, you know. Then he knew that, well, maybe, maybe the Spirit well, whatever they knew. They didn't know him in such a way that the Spirit ministered Christ to them. So he would share a little bit of the gospel with them. Well, he loves you and he cares for you. One of the things I like to do, I have done all I can do for you and you're going to be fine, but I'd like to pray for you because he has great desires and designs for you. And he'd pray for them. Well, it was an interesting way, unique way to discover whether he was engaged with individuals who have ministered of the Spirit to one another. Paul puts it this way in Romans 5, 5. He actually says what it is, is this expression of the Spirit of God resting upon the lives of the believed that becomes the basis of their fellowship with one another. He says in Romans 5, 5, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given unto us. He's not just talking about our love for God, which is part of it. Our love for God is shed abroad. God's love for us is shed abroad. God pours out Himself upon us through His Spirit. God pours out Himself through us by that Spirit. And we know it. There's an outpouring, something pouring out of our lives. Something the Spirit of God has given us. Here's the second thing under this point that I want you to see here, and it's this. This thing, this evidence of the Holy Spirit, this outpouring of love for the Lord Jesus and the power and the exuding of his life into the believer and out from the believer, Paul knew that in the life of other individuals, that that would be of great benefit to himself. What he was longing for was to encounter the life of the Lord Jesus flowing out from others. Our fellowship as Christians is no richer than the life of the Lord Jesus that we share with one another. And when we share that life in common, we live under a mutual reciprocal blessing. We receive it. We could put it this way, in Paul's mind, if you said to Paul, this is the kind of question that are asked of interviewers at periods of time, you'll see someone interviewing some famous person and one of the questions I'm going to ask you, if there's any person in history that you could sit down with and have dinner with, who would you want to have it be? They come up with all kinds of famous personages, or philosophers, or world leaders, and they say, I'd love to have a, you know, I'd like to meet with Genghis Khan, or I'd love to have a meal with, you know, Thomas Hardy, or whatever it is, and they're giving their various ideas. Here's what Paul would have said. Paul would have wanted to have a meal with the lowest and least of all the saints of Christ before he would want to have a meal with any great leader and great man of power or person of influence or of mind. He would want to be with somebody who exuded the life of the Lord Jesus. That would have been more important to him than anything else. Not prestige, not power, not influence, not intellect. Communion of the saints and the life of Jesus Christ. Paul would have had no interest in the kinds of conversations that so often frequent the water cooler or the chat room or via the group chat in which individuals are talking about the latest famous celebrity and the turmoil and issues in their life and what's taking place in their experiencing. It would have been boorish to him. It would have bored him to death. Paul would have been and desired to be with those who could bring to him the life of the Lord Jesus and their fellowship would be around the Lord Jesus. Lloyd-Jones puts it this way as he talks upon this point. Paul would have at once quote, listen to this, Paul who was this great man is at once quote the unique outstanding apostle and yet a man who can sit on the same bench as the humblest Christian with slaves and servants and then say to them You know, it's been good with me to be with you. I'm feeling better for this fellowship that we have enjoyed together. My heart has been warmed. My faith has been strengthened by you and my time with you. This is what we should want to receive in the church above everything else. Not dynamism, not great personalities, not some great jolt of experience. this kind of New Testament pattern of finding fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ through one another. You know, we say that Jesus is the mediator between God and man, but he's also the mediator between us and one another. I would just add another point here in this fellowship. It should mean that when we encounter other individuals, that we're not wanting to layer them with our own personalities. We don't want to respond to them according to whatever our attitude and disposition is towards them. With some people, you'll be happy to see them. Some people, you won't be so happy to see them. Some people you'll greet warmly because you know that you might have an opportunity among them. Other people you'll greet kind of coolly because you're displeased with them. No, it'll mean that when you encounter people that the first thing that goes to your mind is how the Lord Jesus wants to go out from you. What the Lord Jesus wants to bring into that person's life. What his presence will be like. How he wants to draw them to himself. what his word and what his experience will be with them. Christ I want to engage every man with you coming between me and them. I want you always to be the mediator. I want you to be known in such a way. I want their lives to be brought nearer to you. And I want your truth and your love to overcome them to such extent that you might bring them into responsiveness to you. Repentance, encouragement, whatever they need you know. You know better than I. here's the next thing, this acknowledgement of Paul that these believers stand to offer him some spiritual gift tells us that there is no superiority in the spirit of Christ the same spirit that rested upon Paul, this great apostle, the greatest man in a sense in the history of the church To empower his leadership in his work and to help him fulfill his calling. That same spirit that rested upon Paul, rested upon all of the believers. As such there was an equal standing for them all before one another. There is no hierarchy of spiritual life in Jesus Christ. There are roles that we play. there are people who have been given unique positions of leadership and have been given authority to speak as God would guide and direct them, and they have a responsibility before God that they conduct themselves in such a way that they've carried forth the stewardship that God has given them, but they're not in those positions because they're more holy, they're more spiritual, they've got more of the Holy Spirit than someone else. The Spirit rests upon all of us equally. There are roles to be played in the body of Christ, where some lead and some exercise different ministries, but the same spirit is in all, and the same spirit is over all. It's the spirit that brings us to fellowship, and it's the spirit that gives us equality with one another. And based on that, James, remember, tells the early church, do not be respecters of persons. Don't go give an honor to a person because the person's wealthier, or the person's more connected in the community, or that person is more intelligent, or that person has a manner about them that you want to honor, and you give dishonor to the person who's poor. and doesn't somehow present themselves as well, and you've made a judgment. You've made a judgment of what the Spirit of God is doing by their outward expressions and by their mannerisms and by their talents and abilities or wealth. James actually said that when you do that, that you actually are in danger. He suggests that you may, quote, blaspheme the noble name by which we are saved. When you judge a person on those basis, you could be blaspheming the noble name by which we are saved, which is Jesus Christ. The one who came and gave himself for all of us. The points of our richness and our worth are not on what we've accomplished, but on who fills us and who indwells us. We're all just earthen vessels that the excellency may be of Jesus Christ. It is the treasure of His life in us, His spirit indwelling us, that makes us all something to behold and someone to be with. That's the idea. Here's a conclusion for you. Beware of any form of Christianity that has special holy status for certain individuals and offices. I know when you go to see the Pope, you're supposed to bow down and kiss his big toe. I have a problem with that. Be concerned about anything that elevates somebody in some kind of spiritual status. Beware of any attitude in yourself that removes you from the classifications of the common follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Expect to have Christ by the Spirit brought before you in any point in which you engage in fellowship with another believer in Jesus Christ. If not, oh Spirit, so work in me that I may minister Christ, that Jesus might proceed from my life and go before me. Be committed above all things to bring the Holy Spirit to those in the body of Christ, that's that point. How do you do that? How do you bring the Holy Spirit to others? Well, you focus on Christ and not on yourself. The things of the Spirit are the things of the Lord Jesus. The things of your own flesh are your own flesh. It's your feelings, your talents, your efforts, your abilities, your unique insightfulness. It's what you're going through, what you're experiencing. If that's all you've left is people well informed about your life, Try to engage them a different way. Less of that and more of Jesus. By the working of the Holy Spirit, more of the Lord Jesus. A surrendered life, a life yielded to the Spirit, is a life where you are less and less the subject of conversation, and Christ is more and more the one you want to make known. That's Christian fellowship. That is, Paul says, that is, that is, that I may be encouraged. Hi, this great apostle. I may be encouraged together with you, these new Christians in the faith. By the mutual faith, both of you and me. By the mutual faith, both of you and me. Let's bow our heads. and what is the object of our faith if it's not you dear Savior of men who found us in our sins lost and broken and separated and ready to die took our place in the cross to die on our behalf and bear those sins and comes with us with cleansing and washing and healing and life and it's all from you as we believe and trust in you, you pour out and you open up a fount of life by your spirit poured in us and upon us. So that it's all of Jesus, all by way of your spirit. Lord, as we fellowship and minister and are with one another, as we go through our day enjoying the various experiences of life, going out into the porch of the world and living in the world that you've given us together, Lord Jesus as we go out in those places, may we go out hand-to-hand, arm-in-arm, knowing that it's you who covers our conversation, our life, and you who comes between us. Lord will we go to the person who's bleeding, or battered, or the person who's sullen, and willful, and rebellious, whoever it is, oh God, Let us go forward prayerfully in your spirit to minister Jesus. We ask these things in your precious name. Amen.