Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / John

John 17:13-19 Part 3 09/17/06

Message: ‘Unity in Love’ pt1                          Text: John 17:13-19

Introduction

ILL: Mark Twain used to say he put a dog and a cat in a cage together as an experiment, to see if they could get along. They did, so he put in a bird, pig and goat. They, too, got along fine after a few adjustments. Then he put in a Baptist, Presbyterian, and Catholic; soon there was not a living thing left. (Phillip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace)

ILL: A man was shipwrecked on a deserted island for several years. When he was finally rescued, those who found him were amazed that he had constructed several buildings, including two churches. This puzzled his rescuers and they asked why he built two churches. He replied ‘That’s the one I pray in and that’s the one I wouldn’t step foot in.’ (Bob Leroe)

One of the songs we sing in worship is ‘They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love’ But what will they know… when we don’t get along?

It’s hard to get along, all the time, isn’t it? For some, it’s hard to get along some of the time…even as Christians, which is one reason many stay away from the church. Even Christians stay away from involvement in a local church because they are at odds with someone in that local church.

Transition: Open your Bibles to John 17:20 (pg. 826 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you) In our text this morning, Jesus is praying that

·       in the midst of a divisive, confrontational world,

·       and an off times divisive and self-serving people in the local church,

·       he is praying that Christians might find oneness, a unity of faith and purpose.

1.  John 17:20                       ‘Believe’

Read: John 17:20

Two phrases stick out at me here.

·       ‘Those who will believe’

·       ‘Through their message’

Believe

John 17:2: ‘For you granted him (Jesus) authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you (God the Father) have given him.

John 17:6 ‘I (Jesus) have revealed you (God the Father) to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.’

John 17:9 ‘I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.’

John 17:20 ‘I pray also for those who will believe in me.’

Question: Who are the ‘they’, ‘those’ and ‘them’ Jesus is speaking about and praying for?

·       Generally, all Christians throughout salvation history.

·       Specifically, Jesus, looking down the corridor of time is thinking about and praying for YOU!

What is Jesus praying for you?

·       To be protected from the evil one

·       To be sanctified, holy and set apart

·       To be one with other Christians

Sometimes we pray and in our heart of hearts, if we were honest, we’re really wishing or hoping what we pray for will happen. BUT, when Jesus prays, he knows it will happen because he always does the Father’s will…including what he prays for.

That means by God’s grace

·       You have been given eternal life.

·       You are protected from the evil one until God calls you home.

·       You are sanctified, holy, set apart to serve the Lord

·       You are one with every Christian who has ever lived, now lives and will live.

They all are facts, truth, certainty; not because you deserve it, but because Jesus asked the Father for it and God desires it. How does that make you feel?

But, the boundary for all this is belief in Jesus Christ. Are you one of the ‘those’ Jesus speaks of and prays for here in our text? Do you believe in Jesus?

Apostles

‘Those who believe’ are described as coming to faith in Jesus by the message of his disciples. That means God uses us to continue Jesus’ work of revealing the Father to those who are without a correct picture of God.

Question: What’s the message that the disciples, then and now, will give that will lead people to believe in Jesus?

·       The Good News of forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus Christ by the matchless grace of God.

Let’s put this into context. Jesus will soon be betrayed, his disciples would deny and abandon him. Then Jesus will be killed, all within about 12 hours.

What this means is that Jesus knew his disciples would fail him…but he also knew it would only be temporary.

·       Christian, is Jesus’ ability to know about us any different? He knows you will fail him too…but, he saved you, sustains you and is praying to the Father for you…I think he is telling us this because he wants you to know that your inconsistency, the times you fail to be an effective witness for Jesus Christ, won’t be permanent either.

Think about this. In your life right now, are you being used by God as a disciple of Jesus Christ to be a messenger of the Good News to a lost and dying world? If not, you need to ask yourself why? Then ask God what needs to be different in your life so that others will believe in Jesus through your message.

Transition: In verses 21-23 Jesus makes his third prayer request of the Father. He prays that his disciples, then and now, would be one.

2. John 17:21-23                  ‘One’

Read: John 17:21-23

Why pray for unity?

·       Why not pray for financial support for the disciples as they go about sharing the Good News of life in Jesus Christ?

·       Why not pray for special talents and abilities be given the disciples so that they would be effective in ministry?

·       Why not pray for the disciples to have the ability to feed the poor and hungry?

Why pray for unity?

The answer is simple.

·       All the material blessings we receive from God,

·       All the talents and special abilities we are given by God,

·       All the means we might have to feed the poor and hungry,

amount to nothing without unity, a oneness among the disciples, then and now.

You see, our bickering, our division, our arguing, our pride and separations keep us from faithfully sharing the message of life in Jesus Christ. And even more, it keeps those who are lost from seeing Jesus in us.

Before I talk about the unity and oneness that Jesus prays for in our text, let me talk about why he needs to pray for it… God’s church is a divided church.

I believe the homogeneous church stands against the doctrine of Christian unity. What is a homogeneous church? ‘Birds of a feather who flock together.’ It’s a local church where people feel more comfortable because they are surrounded by people just like them

·       everyone is Caucasian, or

·       everyone is African-American, or

·       everyone is Korean, or

·       corporate worship is always contemporary,

·       corporate worship is always traditional, or

·       everyone is wealthy, or

·       everyone is a Calvinist, or

You get the picture.

And, very often these homogeneous local churches want nothing to do with each other.

ILL: I was riding down Rt. 537 past Jackson the other day and I saw a church called ‘The True Church of Jesus Christ’.  How does that make you feel?

It is very sad but many churches and Christians can’t even work together to reach their city for Jesus Christ. Why? Often, they say, it’s because…

·       we don’t believe the same things.

·       we don’t baptize the same way.

·       we don’t worship the same way

·       we want the ‘seekers’ to come to our church because it’s better.

Yes, these homogeneous churches are comfortable to those who attend. But no where in Scripture do I read that God wants us to be comfortable.

·       God has called us to conform to the image of his son.

·       God has called us to ‘give preference to one another with honor.

·       God has called us to accept one another.

I praise God that CBC is not a homogeneous church!

I praise God that he has led

·       Caucasian, African-American, Korean, Yugoslavian, Chinese, Indian, Pilipino and other ethnic groups to worship here, together.

I praise God that he has led

·       Calvinist, Arminian, Charismatic, Pentecostal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic and those who don’t know or care what they are to worship here, together.

I praise God that he has led

·       Those with little and those with more financial means to worship here, together.

I praise God that he has led

·       Those here who are willing, as the Apostle Paul writes, to ‘consider others more than ourselves’ when it comes to our blended style of worship…not contemporary, not traditional…but a converging of many different tributaries that flow into one river called corporate worship.

I praise God for the diversity he is bringing to CBC.

·       I honestly believe he’s giving us a glimpse of what heaven is like. Because of the desire of many to be comfortable in a homogeneous church, they miss out on this experience.

·       I also believe that when the world outside these walls hears and sees of our unity within diversity, they will want to join us.

But, CBC is not a perfect church. Sometimes we get in the way of oneness because we act more like children than mature adults.

That’s why Jesus prays for us to be one. Oneness among God’s children is supernatural. Like, our salvation, our protection and our sanctification, our oneness comes as a gift of God’s grace because Jesus asks the Father for it, on our behalf.

That means, like Jesus,

·       we need to be praying for a deeper experience of oneness here at CBC.

·       we need to be praying for a unity in faith and purpose among God’s people here at CBC.

Oneness being a gift of God’s grace to God’s people doesn’t mean we don’t have any responsibility to maintain oneness and unity here at CBC.

·       We need to be praying for obedience to all of God’s Word including the ‘One Another’s’ which clearly reveal to us how we ought to live with one another. (See insert)

Conclusion

In closing, let me say that unity in the body of Christ, oneness here at CBC and among God’s people throughout the world ought to be a passion of each Christian. It certainly was Jesus’ passion. When you consider everything else Jesus could have prayed for for us, he prayed for our oneness.

ILL: The great scholar John Calvin, saw that the Devil’s chief device to destroy the church was disunity and division. He preached that there should be friendly fellowship for all ministers (churches) of Christ, and made this point in a letter he sent to a trusted colleague: 

·       Among Christians there ought to be so great a dislike of schism, as that they may always avoid it so fast as lies in their power. That there ought to prevail among them such a reverence for the ministry of the word and the sacraments that wherever they perceive these things to be, there they must consider the church to exist...nor need it be of any hinderance that some points of doctrine are not quite so pure, seeing that there is scarcely any church which has not retained some remnants of former ignorance.”

(The Body, Charles W. Colson, 1992, Word Publishing pp. 107-108)

Someone once wrote ‘To dwell above with the saints we love, indeed, that will be glory. To live below with saints we know, well, that’s another story.’

Friends, let’s rewrite the story.

·       Let’s commit to God his work to make CBC a place where we are one in Jesus Christ. One heart, one mind, one faith, one Lord, one people of God. One body of Christ.

·       And let’s commit ourselves to being obedient to God’s Word, especially as it instructs us on how to live with each other.

To God be the Glory in all things…and Lord, … make us one.