1 Cor 1. 9. God is faithful by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Jesus Christ Our Lord. I want as the Lord my enable me this evening to direct your thoughts especially to the word we have in this verse “fellowship”. The Apostle is writing to the Corinthian Christians and speaks of himself as having been called to be an apostle. And we have in the Acts of the Apostles a very beautiful account of his calling[3]. He was called to be “sent out”, for that is the meaning of the word Apostle. Our Lord is spoken of as the Apostle and High Priest of our profession (in Heb 4.1[4]). Then we have two opposites. The one he sent out and the other goes in. Our Lord was sent out by the Father, and having accomplished His work He “goes in”, there to appear in the presence of God for us. Then he also speaks of those for whom he is writing, they are called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus both theirs and ours, and I think this statement embracing every believer, also applies to the verse under consideration. We are all called to the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord by God the Father.. Now this word may not convey to our minds just what the Apostle intended to convey to the Corinthian believers. It is practically the same as that which is used in Luke 5. 10[5]. Where we read that James and John, sons of Zebedee were “partners” with Simon, no doubt referring to their secular trade prior to the call to discipleship. But now to be partners in a far greater and much more important work, catching men for Christ. Now let us get this firmly established in our mind. We are called into partnership, or fellowship, of Jesus Christ. It is a very high & holy calling, and as the truth of it reaches our inmost soul we shall be compelled to exclaim “Who is sufficient for these things[6]”. Do we not hear Him say “Take my yoke upon you[7]”. Here we see the principle of partnership in a practical way. Now, I would like to call your attention to a few passages of Scripture we [where] are Lord used to [two] small words “we and us” linking his disciples with Himself in a very blessed way.. Our first one is in Matt 3. 15 Suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh “us” to fulfill all righteousness. I think that if we take this in the light of the context we see a great step downwards of our blessed Lord. John is baptizing in Jordan and in verse 5 we read Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins. Now let us pass on to v. 13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. To all the spectators of that scene, there would be no apparent difference between our blessed Lord and those who confess their sin, and I think we can see how Isa 53. 12 is being fulfilled. “He was numbered with the transgressors”. And there is one thing that some believe, and not without some reason. That He so completely took our sins upon Him that He confessed them as His own[8]. I would like to call your attention to Psa 69 where we have scriptures admittedly referring to our Lord’s suffering upon Calvary, and between the verses which we know refer to that we have the statement “My sins are not hid from Thee”. Let it be clearly stated He has no sins of His own to hide, and if that statement is prophetic of Him there is only one conclusion The sins were ours, for we all believe All our sins were laid upon Him Jesus bore them on the tree God who knew them laid them on Him and believing we are free[9]. Whatever may be our view of these verses we know this.. our Lord linked us sinners with Himself in these words. Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.[10]
Now let us turn to John 4. 22 Ye worship ye know not what, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. Here we have the partnership of worship. And it is the worship of the Father and it is not an empty lifeless form, but it is in spirit and in truth. In John’s Gospel where the leading thought is the Divine Sonship of Christ we find Him speaking continuously of His Father and when speaking to Mary Magdalene He says I ascend to my father and Your father. Do we worship God as Father and do we grasp the tremendous truth that in that same verse He speak[s] of the disciples as “my brethren”. The condescending love of our blessing (sic) Lord… We know what we worship. Then let us pass on to John 6 and in v. 5 we read He said “Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat. I think we may do well to remember that the question is asked to Philip, but he uses the word we. A glorious partnership in service. Now let us go back to John 1, and there we have the record of Philip’s commencement in service, for his new Master. He is speaking as Nathaniel of the Lord Jesus and this is what he says We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote. What did they write? Deut 18. 15 we read A prophet shall the Lord thy God raise up.. like unto me. Stephen in Acts 7[11] applies that to the Lord, and we ask How and in what way did Philip think that Jesus was like unto Moses. Moses fed an hungry crowd in the wilderness. Could He do as Moses did? Philip did not think so, he did not stand the test. Nevertheless our Blessed Lord called him in to help. Yes there was a glorious partnership[12] in service, and the power of the Lord far exceeded the faith of the workers and so it is today, or there would be very little food available for the sheep. Just one more Scripture to close with this in John 14. 31 and 18. 1. He went forth with His disciples into the garden of Gethsemane, the place of suffering. Yes, He says Let us go hence but having arrived there we find Him dismissing them as He turns to the cruel mob that came to take Him, and says to them “If ye therefore seek me Let these go away. The partnership must terminate here for a brief space and He must go on alone. They cannot help in this.
[1] This presumably is a cottage meeting. There are a group of Woodlands Cottages in Pickhurst Rd, Chiddingfold
[2] That is Chiddingfold. Lloyd preached at Woodside Baptist Church and Providence Chapel, another Baptist Church in Chiddingfold where his son Raymond was baptized. Providence Chapel is now a private house but Woodside is still thriving. It seems likely that these two churches would have had different theological backgrounds, maybe General and Particular Baptist, but this was not apparent by the 1950s.
[3] Acts 9:15 although Paul is not called an apostle here (see 14:14)
[4] Actually Hebrews 3:1
[5] koinonoi and koinoian
[6] 2 Corinthians 2:16
[7] Matthew 11:29
[8] This would appear to show some sympathy with the views of Benjamin Newton, the early Brethren pioneer that were condemned by Darby and Müller and were a contributing factor in the division of the Brethren in the 1840s and 50s. Tim Grass in Gathering to His Name describes Newton's views as
… some of Christ's sufferings were endured not because he was acting as a substitute for sinners, nor because he was sinful himself, but because he had entered voluntarily into relationship with sinners as a member of Israel. He did not deserve to suffer, but he had entered into relationship with those who did.
This is a direction of thought which seems close to Lloyd's attitude both here and elsewhere, but he is also aware that it is potentially controversial and so is tentative in the way he introduces it. A cottage meeting with trusted friends would maybe be a safe place to explore such ideas.
[9] RISE, my soul! behold 'tis Jesus verse 3 slightly adapted
by J. Denham Smith (1817-1889. A Congregational minister who appeared to join the Brethren when he developed an itinerant ministry see http://www.believersmagazine.com/bm.php?i=20150203 )
1 RISE, my soul! behold 'tis Jesus,
Jesus fills thy wondering eyes;
See Him now in glory seated,
Where thy sins no more can rise.
2 There in righteousness transcendent,
Lo! He doth in heaven appear,
And the blood of His atonement
Is thy title to be there.
3 All thy sins were laid upon Him,
Jesus bore them on the tree;
God, who knew them, laid them on Him,
And, believing, thou art free.
4 God now brings thee to His dwelling,
Spreads for thee His feast divine,
Bids thee welcome, ever telling,
What a portion there is thine.
5 Blessed circle of His favour,
Circle of the Father's love!
Blessed to be there for ever
In His perfect rest above!
6 Blessed, glorious word, "for ever"!
Yea, "for ever" is the word;
Nothing can the ransomed sever,
Nought divide them from the Lord.
(number 238 in The Believers Hymn Book)
[10] Matthew 3:15
[11] v 37
[12] It is interesting to note that a modern network of progressive Open Brethren churches is called Partnership