Watch as Ray David opens Luke 24:36-43, and points us to the resurrected Christ.
Seeing the Risen Jesus
At its core, the Christian life is fundamentally about seeing the risen Jesus for yourself. You can know the gospel accounts of Jesus, but the tipping point in your life will be when God works a miracle in your life and you see the risen Christ.
Deep Fellowship
The resurrected Christ appears to us in scripture, but He also appears to us through Christian fellowship. The type of fellowship where we meet the risen Christ is deep, and intentionally pushes past the mundane and superficial. In fellowship, look for opportunities to ask your Christian brothers and sisters about the state of their souls. Ask what God has been showing them through prayer and the word.
Vulnerable Fellowship
If you are going to meet the Risen Christ through Christian fellowship, you need to be willing to take a chance, and talk honestly with your brothers and sisters about your life. This can be scary. We will be prone to insecurity and fear of judgment. But if you take the chance, you will find depth and strength in your vulnerability. You will find that your experiences are not exclusive to you. Others struggle with your same struggles. Vulnerability will create a foundation of trust where you can together come to Jesus. `
Wide Fellowship
Evangelism, at its core, is about fellowship. Fellowship isn’t about us huddling together and creating a christian sub-culture. Christian fellowship is wide. We cast it wide, so as many people as possible can experience the goodness of the Gospel of Jesus. God is more concerned with the people outside the church, than those inside. God leaves the ninety-nine and goes to seek the one who is out of fellowship – the one who is missing. Christian fellowship seeks out the lost.
Secular culture is one of isolation. No talks to one another. Cast the net of Christian fellowship wide and strike up conversations with strangers. Seek out the lost.
Speaking Peace
Speaking peace to one another is essential to Christian fellowship. Christian fellowship keeps short accounts. Forgiveness is given quickly and freely – even when it’s not deserved.
The opposite of forgiveness is resentment and scorekeeping. Resentment is like a cancer that will destroy relationships and fellowship.
So why don’t we move quicker to forgiveness? We hesitate because of insecurity. We like being in control and having the power in a relationship. If we forgive others, then we will be on equal footing and that can feel like weakness. But when we forgive, especially when the other person doesn’t deserve it, we will experience a glimpse of Jesus, because that’s the way that God has loved us in Him.
Shalom
The biblical sense of peace is ‘shalom’ – everything set aright and restored. This is right at the centre of a Christian worldview. Jesus is God’s peace to His creation. When Jesus spoke peace to His disciples, He was saying, that through His resurrection, reality has been realigned. The entire created order, that was heading toward death and destruction, is now heading toward fulfillment, shalom and peace.
Christian fellowship should be a place where we speak this kind of shalom and hope to one another. Sometime life can be so difficult that we can’t see that light at the end of the tunnel on our own. We need other people to come alongside us and speak peace and hope. We need people to remind us of God’s redemptive plan in Jesus.
Real and Active Fellowship
The kind of fellowship where Jesus appears is earthy, tangible and real. Jesus is not an abstract idea – he is real and tangible. In the same way, Christian fellowship doesn’t just speak love – it roles up its sleeves and shows love through action. Christian fellowship has real hands and real feet. Find places where you can serve tangibly in Christian fellowship. In this, sometimes mundane service, you will see Jesus – the One who came to serve, not to be served.
This week press into counter-cultural, life-giving fellowship. Intentionally engage in relationships that are deep and wide. Speak shalom and peace to one another. Keep short accounts. In these moments you will find Jesus. And even more so, you will find a deeper truth – that he has been seeking you all along. That is the very nature and character of God. He is the God who pursues.
