Read John 17:20-23
Well, the plan tonight is to move through a number of different passages, but these verses that we just read in John 17 really contain the opening and closing points for this evening and it will serve as kind of our base line as we weave in some more understanding through other passages in just a little bit. But I do really want to stop for a moment and just recognize what is actually going on here in John 17. This is literally Jesus praying for us. The King of kings, the Lord of lords, stopping at this moment, the very Son of God, to call out to His Father on our behalf. The entirety of John 17 is Jesus praying. He begins by praying for Himself in light of what He knows is coming immediately after this prayer. When He finishes praying, they are leaving for the garden of Gethsemane. To the place where Judas will betray Him and turn Him over to the authorities. He knows exactly what is coming and is taking this moment to stop and talk with His Father right now. And obviously we didn’t read the earlier parts of John 17 tonight, but if you follow His prayer He continues and He prays for all the of the disciples that were there with Him at that time. He prays for their protection because He is going to be leaving them soon physically. He obviously knows this, and they aren’t really too clear on this point yet, but that’s why He is praying about it. And He also prays for their continued effectiveness as He is sending them out to be on His mission. But then we get to verse 20 where we started reading, and in verse 20 Jesus expands the scope of His prayer and includes “those who will believe in Me through their word”, through the disciple’s word as they carry forward His words, and we’re actually the product of that if you have never stopped to think about it. The product of our Almighty God working through people sharing the Gospel message throughout time and History. It’s crazy to think about the fact that there has been an unbroken chain of the Gospel that extends from these men around Jesus at that moment, to us today, and its absolute proof that Jesus’ mission for His followers has worked and it’s still in effect right now. We’re a link in the chain of the Gospel movement and we now have the opportunity and the calling to connect more links to the chain as well and keep this going.
So, this moment in John 17, as Jesus prays, is for us, I mean it was also for all the generations of believers that have come before us, and then it’s for us, and then it’s still for the generations of believers still to come because the work is still active. He’s praying for His people, He’s praying for us, and if we understand the gravity of what is happening here then we’re going to pay attention to this. And I probably talk about the gravity of something every week, but I’m convinced that if we don’t begin to feel the actual weight of importance of these things then we might not actually do anything about any of it. Two meetings ago we talked about the gravity of Who God is, then at the next gathering we talked about the gravity of His Word, and now tonight we’re here to look at the gravity of real Unity and Church Community because that’s exactly what Jesus is praying about here in these verses. And if the very Son of God literally about to head out the door to His death sentence, saw fit to pray for this specifically, then it must be really important.
So, what does Jesus pray?
He prays as you can see there at the beginning of verse 21, for us to be “ONE”. And it’s in that where we see His desire for our unity. If you google the definition for unity, it comes back as: “the state of being united or joined as a whole”. As parts or people or pieces or whatever are brought together to form a whole thing, whatever that thing may be, you may have had a lot of parts, but now you have one whole new thing. For instance, we are in the United States, which is made up of 50 distinct and different states that form one whole United States. It’s the same idea with the 193 countries in the United Nations or the 27 countries of the European Union. Or even the fact that it takes 30000 parts on average to come together to form a whole modern vehicle. It’s a lot of parts, but it’s one car. And that’s the church, it’s a lot of people, but it’s one church, it’s one whole, and that extends beyond the four walls of any given church or this room right now. Jesus is praying that His people, all of His people, would be unified, would be ONE.
And you know I learned something that I found to be interesting when I googled the definition for “unity”. I found out that in mathematics the number “one” is actually referred to as unity. And maybe everybody knows that, maybe we all learned that in second grade or something, but with my combination of a bad memory and not being the greatest at math, this was news to me, and I found it to be quite interesting. That ONE = UNITY and if we truly are unified then the equation works in reverse as well with us being unified equaling ONE. And that’s what Jesus is praying for. And so that’s also your math fact for tonight, but don’t expect a lot of those.
And so, Jesus prays for us to be one, prays for us to be unified, and He uses the relationship, the unity between God the Father and God the Son as the example. And that’s a crazy high bar. There are no gaps, there are no weaknesses in the unity between God the Father and God the Son because they are literally One God. And God knows obviously that unity between people isn’t possible at this level, in and of ourselves. And that’s why the true unity of believers, the true unity of the church is a testimony of the supernatural, of the very power of God. That’s why Jesus prays there in verse 21 as well, that we would be one “IN US”, and if we listen to that from His mouth, then He is praying that we would be One within God Himself. Within His power, within His control, because only He can bring this level of unity amongst broken and in reality, sinful people. And He’s praying all of this because as He continues on there, this unity has a specific purpose.
And please don’t miss this.
I titled the message tonight, “The real purpose of Church Comm(UNITY)” and here it is from Jesus’ own mouth so please don’t miss it.
You see there in verse 21 that we would be unified within God Himself SO THAT “the world may believe that You sent Me”. And He repeats this again and builds on it in verse 23 as well “that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me”. The unity of God’s people has an ultimate purpose, and we can’t miss that. And as Jesus’ prayer continues into verse 24, He prays about His desire to be united with His people and reflects on the unity, the relationship that He shares with the Father. In verse 25 He calls out and speaks of this world that hasn’t known His father like He has. But at the end of verse 25 the movement, the change, the church is starting. He says that the world has not known You (speaking of His Father), “but these”, (the disciples around Him) …these know that YOU sent ME, and I have declared Your name to them, and will continue to declare it. But again, let’s not miss the end of verse 26 either, because this is the revealing of an incredible truth, a truth that makes all of this work. The end of verse 26 tells us, that HE will take up residence within us, that God Himself will live inside of us that believe, and even on top of that, He says that the very love known between God the Father and God the Son will be put inside of us as well. If there was anything in existence that is going to make all of this possible, it’s God’s presence and God’s love inside of us that can work these things out.
And so, we really already have our answer to the main points for tonight, that Jesus Himself prayed seriously for us to be unified and that the ultimate purpose of that unity is to reveal His truth to this world. But what happens in the inbetween, what does that look like in the day-to-day life of the church. And I want to approach this a little differently, I’m not going to really breakdown another passage in great detail, I just want to read some other portions of scripture and see how this all works, and maybe make a few comments here and there. Let’s start in 1 Corinthians 12.
Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
- We see the oneness
- We see that we all need each other
- We see that there are a bunch of different roles, and that they are all necessary
Read 1 Corinthians 13
- We see love
- The very love that was put inside of us
- We see that all the form, functions, and duties of community are worthless if they aren’t done in love
- The spiritual gifts really are like a container for that love to be delivered to one another in
Read 1 Peter 4:7-11
- We see urgency and seriousness
- We that love again
- We see that love will be what we need to deal with the issues that will happen when you gather people together
- In love, we use our gifts, by the power of God, to minister to one another, and God is glorified in this
Read Acts 2:40-47
- We see all of this in action
- Believers coming together into a real unified community
- Caring for and ministering to one another
- They had a great reputation in the community
- AND WHAT IS THE RESULT?
“And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” Real people, real unity, real church community, and God built His church in the midst of that. And that’s the goal here. Let’s love each other with the love of God, let’s minister to each other how we are supposed to, let’s reach out to our community and have a great reputation here, and I trust that God will build His church.
You know I said that you got your one math fact for tonight earlier, but maybe one more word problem or word equation. I believe that Jesus + us + the love that He put inside of us + our spiritual gifting + our God given purpose on this earth + real unity could = incredible possibilities in our lives, in this church, and in this community and maybe even far beyond that for the Kingdom God.
The endgame for the unity of the church is not so that we can have a social club of people that like to associate with Jesus. Jesus is praying for this unity to exist and to be purposed as a definitive testimony of Who He is, why He came, and that He loves us. And its only truth of that magnitude, with this much purpose, carried forward by His power, that can really set the foundation for people to come together from all walks, from all backgrounds, from all status’, from all places, with all skin colors, speaking all languages to say THAT HE IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS and we’re only here because of that.
At the end of the day, this is for His purposes in culture and for His glory, but does it benefit us as well? ABSOLUTELY IT DOES! There’s nothing like the family-like bond that we can have within this church community. There is nothing like the love of God that He has put inside of us that we can minister to each other with. There’s nothing else like the common purpose in life that we have when we rally around His purposes in this world. There is nothing like watching God work through His people and seeing His power miraculously transform lives, families, communities and that we would have this opportunity together to share in a small part of His work here in this Earth is absolutely staggering, if you really stop to think about it. And so what I’m trying to say if I have rambled too much in trying to say it is that this benefits us so much, but the main point of our unity isn’t us being a consumer of church benefits, that’s a side benefit, the main point of our unity is to broadcast who Jesus is and what He has done into this world and to be a living testimony that just screams that this is all absolutely true to people who are just like us and desperately need to know that. That’s why we gather.