THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SPIRIT
Philippians 2:1-4; Exodus 26:15-19,22-24,26-29;
I read these scriptures because of the reference in Philippians to the fellowship of the Spirit. It is something we do not speak much about, but it is basic. We speak of the fellowship of God’s Son to which we have been called; whether we have all entered into that would be an important question. We have all been called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and then there is also the fellowship of His death. But I believe that if we are to be fully in that fellowship, we have to know more of the fellowship of the Spirit, which we do not speak about very often.
The Spirit of God is here with us and in us. He is our Guide. The fellowship of the Spirit involves that He is made room for in what we do, where we go and how we move. He is our Comforter. How much we need Him! Paul wrote about walking in the Spirit (Gal.5:16). These are all features of the fellowship of the Spirit. Another reference to it is communion. Paul used that word – the communion of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor.13:14). It is not something that is theoretical, it is very practical. How much we need Him to walk rightly. Paul wrote “If we live by the Spirit, let us walk also by the Spirit”, Gal.5:25. He is here in His service, dear brethren, as sent of the Father and of the Son. He is here that we may be in the enjoyment of fellowship, not just nominally assenting to things, but practically in fellowship. Fellowship is not just something that you are in when you come to the meeting. The fellowship of the Spirit forms the fibre of your life. There are some young people here tonight and we are glad to see them. You need the Spirit at school when you may be taunted for speaking about Jesus. He is alongside you. Scripture says, “it shall be given to you in that hour what ye shall speak”, Matt.10:19. Think of Luther standing alone before the great company at the Diet of Spires, and the scripture came to him; “in quietness and confidence shall be your strength”, Isa.30:15. That is the fellowship of the Spirit. The Spirit was there alongside Luther. He was not standing alone. He seemed to be alone, but he proved the fellowship of the Spirit; there was a voice there. It is a beautiful touch in Isaiah about the “word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it”, Isa.30:21. These are things that we need in our daily lives. The more we realise the blessedness of them, the more we will make room for the fellowship of the Spirit.
So Paul in Philippians gives us some of the features of what he had learned down here. Paul experienced very practical things and he wrote of them. How could we experience “bowels and compassions” without the Spirit? We seek to sympathise with people, but there is no sympathy like the sympathy of the Spirit. He brings a word to you. We have all proved it in our own experiences. There have been times when somebody has spoken a word, maybe unexpectedly, and it was all part of the fellowship of the Spirit. He is in control of the dispensation down here, and He is here alongside us. That is what I would like to leave on our hearts, that He is very near. So there are “bowels and compassions … that ye may think the same thing”. And then Paul goes on to write about “having the same love, joined in soul”. What a bond; joined in soul, not just formally, but there is a bond that is formed in the fellowship of the Spirit. What a beautiful thing that is, to be “joined in soul”. There is no distance, because you “think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking one thing”. You can see how the Spirit leads. He is in the lead in these things that Paul wrote about. There is no diversity.
Then “thinking one thing”. You may have thought that to “think the same thing” was enough, but it is not. The Spirit is here, a great bond. We sometimes speak of the unity of the Spirit. It is a great bond, and it is working in this scripture, “thinking one thing … in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves”. A new character is being produced. Men have their fellowships, they have their standards and they have their laws. But what we enjoy constitutionally is the fellowship of the Spirit. Things are bound together in an unbreakable bond. May we make room for it. It is a very striking thing that Paul wrote not only that they were to “think the same thing”, but also that they were to be “thinking one thing”. There does not seem much difference, but there is. The difference, dear brethren, is seen in Jonathan. He thought the same as David, but he did not quite think one thing with him. It came to a point in their lives when testing came. Jonathan said to David, ‘I know that one day you will be king’. That was thinking the same thing. But he went back to the house of Saul; he was not thinking one thing. Those who came to David in the cave of Adullam were thinking one thing. It will require sacrifice, dear brethren, but there is no other way to be in the fellowship of God’s Son, in the dignity and the blessedness and the richness of that calling, except to be brought to think one thing. It will involve reproach. What happened to Jonathan? A tragedy happened; Jonathan fell in battle in company with Saul. It almost broke David’s heart; he expressed his feelings in the song of the bow, which is one of the most beautiful passages of Scripture; “my brother Jonathan: very pleasant wast thou unto me”, 2 Sam.1:26. But Jonathan fell there. Division had come in, and Jonathan was not prepared for the reproach. So to think the same thing is not enough, we need to be thinking one thing, and that is thinking in the power of the Spirit.
You can see this in the boards of the tabernacle. I read about them because I think they illustrate the fellowship of the Spirit. They were all made of acacia wood; that is what Philippians 2 speaks of – the lowliness of Jesus. Acacia wood is a wood that can endure in the wilderness and maintain its strength. The boards of acacia wood were made of the same wood as the ark. The fellowship is expressed by them, for there was an affinity between them and the ark. It was the same wood; “the boards for the tabernacle thou shalt make of acacia-wood”. If we had read on in Philippians, we would have seen the acacia wood in expression in Jesus. He emptied Himself, taking a bondman’s form. That is the acacia wood, and it was able to bear the gold. It was not a wood that would break easily, and yet it must have been easily worked with. It is like the fellowship of the Spirit. We are amenable, we are not to be broken easily. But what I wanted to speak about was that the boards were close to one another. Each was made with its two tenons standing on a base of silver. They all stood up themselves, they had their own standing, but they were bound together. There were none in isolation. They were all bound together; it speaks of them being joined one with the other. There was nothing between them, they were very close to one another. That speaks of thinking one thing. They each had different places and different positions to fill, but they were all bound together, and standing on the same bases. We used to sing a hymn:-
‘On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand’.
That is where the boards were standing – on solid ground. The standing on those bases was never to be moved. Paul wrote “be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord”, 1 Cor.15:58. That is the fellowship of the Spirit coming into expression.
Then these boards were in different places. There were boards for the corners. The corner is always a difficult part. We are in difficult times now, dear brethren. There are corners, and it brings out the need for the fellowship of the Spirit. Not what we think or who we prefer, or our own ideas, but there are these boards which bear the exercises of the corner. The corners needed special strength and the boards at the corners were joined beneath and above, and united at the top to one ring. Mr Darby’s footnote says that it means that they were twins. I think that is a very beautiful touch – the boards at the corners were twins. It meant one could only go where the other went. They were standing on those bases and united at the top with a ring. They were very much bound close together.
I wanted to speak especially about the middle bar referred to in verse 28. There was a middle bar in the midst of the boards reaching from one end to the other. That represents the fellowship of the Spirit. That bar ran from one end to the other; the tabernacle was joined by that one bar. No one board could say, ‘I do not agree with that locally’. There is a bar binding the whole fellowship of the Spirit together and that is the Holy Spirit Himself; it is the unity of the Spirit. Let us sow to Him, dear brethren. Let us make room for Him. No board could say, ‘I am leaving; I am too busy, I have something else calling me’. There are many voices calling us, but that one bar held the whole together, and at the corners, there were twins. What a beautiful touch; each feeling their responsibility, but each enjoying the privilege. Why were the boards there? They were there to protect the ark. That was the whole point of the boards being there, that the ark might be sheltered. In the wilderness, there are many winds blowing about and much confusion. The boards were protecting the ark, and that is the fellowship of the Spirit. Christ Himself is the Centre, dear brethren, and who can tell us more about Him than the Spirit as He has liberty to do so.
That is what we have in Ephesians – the earnest of the Spirit. He is giving us the strength to be joined together and to stand fast and to hold fast what we have been given. Paul called Him “the Holy Spirit of promise”. What a great thing it is to enjoy the promises, to enjoy the inheritance as it is made room for. In Exodus, when Moses said that the journey was going to be difficult, God said, “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way”, Exod.23:20. That would be a reference to the Spirit. God then said, “Be careful in his presence”. But the children of Israel were not. They did not strive to keep the unity of the Spirit, although there came a point when in type they did, when they drank of the water from the rock. They saw the brazen serpent. In type, they came into the fellowship of the Spirit and they journeyed, but they were to be careful in the presence of the Angel. So here, Paul enjoins and encourages the Ephesians; he wrote “ye have been sealed”. That means that you have been marked, and the mark is sure; you are sealed. The Holy Spirit of promise is the earnest of our inheritance.
May we make room for the Spirit so that we know more of the earnest of our inheritance. Israel came into it when they made room for the Spirit. They journeyed, and soon came into a land that God had prepared, houses that they had not built, trees that they had not planted. What an inheritance, dear brethren, lies ahead of us. May we know more of the fellowship of the Spirit on our journey homeward, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Kirkcaldy
23 December 2014
R. Taylor
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