The Fellowship of the King

Acts 2:42-2:47They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. – Acts 2:42-47

This week, our church had communion and a “sharing time.” A sharing time is a time when anyone can come up and share what they have been learning about living the Christian life, through experiences or through studying the Word. I introduced the time with this passage and a brief discussion of two Greek words.


The first Greek word I have discussed before. The word is homothumadon. I spoke about this word two weeks ago. It means “in one accord” to a strong degree, to an intensity that is almost scary. Like fire. It is one thing to see fire in a carefully controlled place, like a fireplace, but it is something entirely different to see it grow, spread, out of control. It isn’t safe. Homothumadon is like that. Where is homothumadon in this passage? It is a bit hidden in the NIV translation, but it is the word together. “They continued to meet together (in one accord) in the temple courts.” The Lord was adding daily to their number those who being saved. So the crowds there were getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Growing like a fire out of control. Or like a plague spreading out of control. To the temple leaders, that is what it must have looked like. Homothumadon wasn’t just limited to the temple courts. Another way of translating this (this is closer to the KJV) is to say that “Every day they were homothumadon and they continued to meet in the temple courts.”

Now for the second Greek word. This is a word you may have heard before. The word is koinonia, and it means fellowship. The root word for this is koina, which means common. In fact, koina is used in verse 44 – they had everything in koina. Koinonia is “deep” fellowship. If there is koinonia between you and me, then the things that matter most to me are the things that matter most to you. We have our most important things in common. And the thing that matters most to us is Christ, the King.

I used the title “Fellowship of the King” as a theme for the Sunday. There were two reasons for this. One, was a play on the words, the “Fellowship of the Ring,” the book by J. R. R. Tolkien and the movie based on it. But the second reason has to do with the astounding truth of the phrase “Koinonia of the King.” Our “commonality” – the thing that we have in common – is Christ our King. Christ is why we work to have an excellent meeting together. Christ is why we come together at all.

I drew a few parallels between our situation and Tokien’s epic. In the book/movie “Fellowship of the Ring,” the reason for their fellowship was to destroy the “master” ring of Middle Earth. Contained in the ring was the very essence of Sauron, the Satan figure of their world. To destroy the ring was to destroy the power and works of Sauron.

For us, in a way, our fellowship, our koinonia, has the purpose of destroying the works of Satan, who is the master of our world. We do this by getting to know Christ (to have an ever-deepening relationship with Him), and by making Him known (by proclaiming the good news to all who will listen). Doing these two things builds God’s kingdom and destroys the power and works of Satan. This is our “fellowship of the King.”

I briefly mentioned several additional passages that use the word koinonia.

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have koinonia with us. And our koinonia is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. – I John 1:3

The source of koinonia is our relationship with Jesus. “What we have seen and heard” is Christ.

God, Who has called you into koinonia with His Son, Jesus Christ, is faithful. – I Cor. 1:9

God calls us into koinonia with Jesus. God faithfully helps those who seek Him to enter into koinonia with Him.

If we claim to have koinonia with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have koinonia with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. – I John 1:6-7

Koinonia requires a right relationship with Jesus. If we are to have koinonia with one another and with God, we must walk in the light. This means confessing our sin and accepting Christ’s sacrifice as the payment for our sin.

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the koinonia of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. – Phil. 3:10-11

Suffering and sacrifice are parts of koinonia. As we sacrifice, we join into koinonia with Christ. Do you want to enter into the koinonia of Christ’s sufferings? If not, pray for the “want to.” Koinonia is bittersweet.

Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a koinonia in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a koinonia in the body of Christ? – I Cor. 10:16

We experience koinonia through the bread and cup of communion. When we take of the bread and cup, it is not that they somehow become the “real” blood and body of Christ. It is that our fellowship becomes real – our koinonia becomes real.

We then shared communion together and had a wonderful sharing time. There were many speakers, but one Holy Spirit guiding us – much like the picture above: many branches, but one Stem. Praise God for how He is still actively empowering His body today!