John 15:9-17, The Joy of Fellowship

John Mitchell was the pastor of Central Bible Church, Portland, Oregon, for 37 years.  He was instrumental in establishing Multnomah School of the Bible and taught there for many years.  He wrote a commentary on the three epistles of John, with the simple title, “Fellowship.”  I am moved every time I read the Forward and am going to share it with you.

THE JOY OF FELLOWSHIP by John G. Mitchell

The heart of God yearns for the fellowship of His people.  We hear men speak of how we ought to have fellowship with God, and rightly so.  But do we ever think that the Lord yearns and longs for our fellowship?  This was why God created man, but man failed God.  This was why God redeemed sinners, in order that He might have someone with whom He can have fellowship.

In Amos 3:3 we read, “How can two walk together unless they have an appointment?”  We who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have an appointment with God and God has an appointment with us.  God always keeps His appointments.  We are the ones who do not keep the appointment with God.

Adam and Eve had an appointment with God.  “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.  And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where are thou?” (Genesis 3:8).  Sin did not keep God from the appointment, but it did keep Adam from it.  We have an appointment with God, and sin keeps us from meeting with God.

This truth is all through the Bible.  God wants our fellowship.  He found fellowship with Enoch, a man who lived in an ungodly world.  He found Noah who lived in a violent world.  Then He found Abraham who lived in an idolatrous, corrupt world (cp. Romans 1).  Note how God enjoyed His fellowship with Abraham.  He is called the friend of God in 2 Chron. 20:7, “Art not Thou our God” … you gave this land “to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever,” and in Isaiah 41:8, “The seed of Abraham my friend” (cp. Genesis 18:17).

Exodus 33:11 reveals that God enjoyed intimate friendship with Moses who lived among a stiff-necked, murmuring people, “And the Lord spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.”  This is restated in Deuteronomy 34:10, “Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”

Such fellowship has ever been the desire of the Lord from the beginning.  Even our Lord expressed it to his disciples in John 15:15, “Henceforth, I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you.”  This is not only relationship, but intimacy of fellowship.  It is the great desire of the heart of God that we should know something of how He wants our fellowship.

This is the heartbeat of the Epistles of John.  In chapter 1:3-4, “Truly our fellowship (partnership) is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.”

May our Lord by His Spirit, through His Word make this very real to you, personally and individually, and may He bring you unto Himself in such sweet fellowship.  What does He desire?  Our fellowship.