Foundation Stones #2: The Lord with the Apostles — Christ Within You

Now, tell me what they were doing for three and a half years. What were they doing? I’m going to tell you what they were doing. It’s just as simple as it could be. They were watching the Son of God. Can I change that just a little bit? They were beholding the Son of God. Now, can I change that just a little bit? They were fellowshipping with the Son of God. Praise the Lord. Did you get my point? It has been brought out of heaven, and it is on the earth.

What was their introduction to the Christian life? Fellowshipping with the Son of God. What was their introduction to the church? Fellowshipping with the Son of God. And what was His preparation? How did He prepare them for the ministry, for the work, for being sent? By having them to fellowship with the Son of God. And will you please tell me what was the Son of God doing? They were fellowshipping with Him. What was He doing? All right. All right. Say it loudly. You got it, Robert. That’s right. If you’d have said the Father, I’d have said you left half of it out. He was fellowshipping with the Father and with them. Praise the lord.

Do you have any idea what that implies? It implies that the fellowship is broadening. It’s getting bigger. That is glorious. That’s wonderful. He has joined two realms. He’s like a ladder. He is like a ladder that has joined the heavenly realms with the earthly realms. He has joined earth to heaven. He has brought the Father to man and man to the Father. He fellowships with the Father and He fellowships with them. They fellowship with Him. He fellowships with the Father. The Father fellowships with Him and He fellowships with them. And one of these days, in the resurrection, He is going to join. Well, boy, I am beginning to understand the Christianship with a Father. I am beginning to understand the churchship and I am beginning to understand what it means what I’m supposed to do in order to be a Christian worker. Praise the Lord. I’m getting clear. Are you getting clear? Praise the Lord.

I say this again. Let’s say a year has passed. You walk up to one of the disciples and you say to them, “What’s the neatest thing in the world?” And they’d say, “Being with Him, fellowshipping with Him.” That’s the second neatest thing in the world. Fellowshipping with them, fellowshipping with Him. Do you understand? Fellowshipping with them, fellowshipping with Him.

What would you like to give the world? What would you like to give the world? What would you like to give the world? I’d like to give the world my fellowship with Him. And I’d like to have with the world the fellowship with Him while they’re fellowshipping with Him. That’s what they had said. They wouldn’t have said, “Well, I’d like to give Him this great big old dispensational chart on how the Lord’s going to come.” Well, I’d like to give them to get the tongues and speak in the other languages. I’d like to heal. No. Honest to goodness, brothers, if you live, if you live with God, if you live God, I want to give them a Bible and let them learn the Bible.

You live with Jesus Christ long enough, I’ll bet you a nickel that what you’d like to give other people is Jesus Christ. I just have the overpowering sense that would be your obsession. Would you argue with me? If you do, you will lose. Don’t tell me that living with the Lord Jesus Christ would find second place. The thrill of being with Him and in fellowship with Him.

I think one of the most incredible things in the world was the intimacy to which this fellowship grew. How intimate did it get? I have one thing in mind. Tell me just how intimate the fellowship of those 13 people got. I believe I can tell you of an intimacy between those 13 people fellowshipping together, more intimate than most of you have ever had with another human being, because you’re single. How many people have you known well enough that you could use their chest for a pillow? That you could just kind of back up to and lay your head down on their chest. How many people have you known that well in your life? I can tell you there’s only one person in the world, other than my wife, I’ve ever done that with and that was my dad. That’s it. I never known anybody else that well.

John lay on the breast of His Lord and ate His dinner. Oh, his Lord. Consider that, and you would go teach him the Bible. You would get him out to save the world. John wanted to tell him about his fellowship. That which I have seen and heard, I declare to you that you have fellowship with me. And my fellowship was so evident that I lay my head on the breast of God. How intimate was that fellowship? No wonder the book of John is so Christ-centered. No wonder it just saturated and oozes with the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew Him that well. That was some close intimate relationship. That was very close fellowship. Will you agree with me? Well, that’s how the Lord prepared John to be a Christian and a member of the church and a worker.

I’m going to say this again. If those men by the time it was over with had anything they would have liked to given the world, it was the fellowship they had with Him and the fellowship they had with one another fellowshipping with Him. What’s another word for that? It’s one world, you missed it completely and I thought you all got it. It’s called the church. That’s what they wanted to give the world. What did they give the world? They gave the world the church.

Right after Pentecost, did they give the world a Bible school, an evangelistic crusade? Praying and fasting, tithing. Yeah, they didn’t give any of that. You know what they gave those people? They gave those people fellowship with Him and fellowship with them fellowshipping with Him, and they’re fellowshipping together and they’re fellowshipping with Him. What do you think? I’m getting ahead of myself. What do you think those 3,000 people saw? For goodness sake, they saw 12 men running around still fellowshipping with somebody who was gone. They saw 12 men so intimately related to and so one with their God that even though He was gone, they were still fellowshipping with Him.

Now, if you think that those 12 men had eyeballed the Lord for four years, think what those 3,000 people did watching those 12 men. I don’t want to get into that, but I am going to tell you that those men burned to give the world the fellowship they had with Him and the fellowship they had with one another, fellowshipping with Him. It’s called the church. They also wanted to give them the Christian life. And what is the Christian life? Well, for the Son, it was the, for Jesus Christ, it was the Father indwelling Him. For the eternal Son, it was the Son, the eternal Son fellowshipping in God, in the Godhead. And for 12 men it was living with Jesus Christ and now Jesus Christ living in them. That was the Christian life. And if they were going to have anybody who were going to be workers, they knew what to do about that, too. Because they had been made workers and they knew how because they had been there from the beginning. And from the beginning there had been the indwelling Father in the Son and they had seen it.

From the beginning there had been fellowship with Him who fellowshipped with the Father. From the beginning there had been church life among them. From the beginning, they knew what it was to be called. And then, they in the end knew what it was to be sent. And when those men got to the day of Pentecost, they couldn’t do anything differently than what Jesus Christ had done.