WAC2BL: United
Scripture Text: John 17.20-23
INTRODUCTION
I have played on some really-rotten basketball teams! It’s no fun. Even-though I love the game, …teammates make such a difference! When the others on the team are selfish, …half-hearted, …arrogant ~ …it’s no-wonder when a team becomes divided. …And motivation wanes. …And cooperation suffers.
I’ve long-believed that sports can give some great life-lessons. And all-those-years - through junior-high-school and high-school, …playing on teams that were a team only-because we wore the same color uniform ~ …I learned that a team is not made by talent or time or name. But a team emerges as it’s members put their egos in the back-seat, …and they commit to something bigger than themselves. Bigger than their wants. Bigger than their ideas. Bigger than their personal-ambitions. Bigger than their own strengths-and-weaknesses!
Well, it’s hard to argue… Actually, it’s impossible to argue that unity isn’t-important in God’s eyes. It is. It’s vital. It’s essential. Without it, the church suffers, …our witness is impotent, …and the members of the church languish in discouragement. If you’ve ever been-a-part of a church that was divided, …you know what I’m talkin’ about! But-today, I wanna give you a recipe for success. It’s a recipe that will surely lead to a beautiful experience: Unity. And, keep-in-mind that the ingredients in this recipe are not good-ideas that Pastor Josh came up with on-his-own. These ingredients are thoroughly scriptural.
I wanna pause-a-minute, here, to say-something. I believe that every-week, God wants to use the Sunday-morning-message to speak to someone’s heart ~ …and-that whenever God speaks, …there’s-the-potential for a life to be changed. It’s a miraculous-thing: …that He takes the Ancient-Word, …and somehow is able to guide and to inspire such-that what-happens on Sunday-mornings is not an eloquent speech, …or, on-the-other-hand, a case study of some long-ago events and people; …but-somehow, God takes the foolishness of preaching to speak a fresh-word to the hearts of His people. It’s a crazy-thing ~ …but God pulls-it-off each-week!
But, there’s something about this particular-message. If we really get-this, …it has the potential to turn this-city upside-down for Jesus! And… if the entire-church got-this, …it would shake the foundations of the kingdom-of-darkness! It’s that-big!
You’ve heard-it-said that Satan is content when believers are luke-warm or apathetic in their faith. Well… I’m tellin’ you that he is even-more-pleased when a church is divided, …dis-united, …at-odds with-one-another, …when relationships are in dissaray. Why?... Why would Satan be so-pleased when there’s discord in the church? Because he knows that it undermines God’s will, …God’s plans, …God’s designs for working through the body-of-believers. There is no-possible-way for the church to-be and to-do all that God plans, …if we are not united. Unity is a big-deal! It would be hard-to-over-estimate the importance of unity. And it’s time the Church of Jesus Christ ~ …and every-local body-of-believers – …whether it’s Nazarenes, …or Methodists, …or Episcopaleans, …or Roman Catholics, …it’s time that the Church of Jesus Christ woke up to this!
Well… I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get-back to the ingredients, …the ‘ingredients’ to unity.
What’s a church to be like? ~ United… that’s the answer. How do we get-there?… What are the steps that we’ve-gotta-take to be a united body?
BODY
I. Unity Requires Submission
The first ingredient in the recipe is: submission.
Don’t-ya-love that word: ‘submission’? For most-people, …when we hear this-word, …the hair on the back-of-our-neck stands-up; …we feel the muscles across our shoulders tense-up; …our jaw clenches. Submit? Uggghhhh!
But, without submission, …unity will not happen!
Do you remember the movie Hoosiers? ~ It’s the story of a coach who’s given one-last-chance, …but it’s at a tiny-small-town in Indiana-farm-country. The towns-folk are suspicious. They’re pessimistic. They think the new-coach is off-his-rocker. Dissention. Back-biting. Under-mining. The team is no-team at-all. There’s no support in the school; …no support from the movers-and-shakers in the town; …and for-quite-a-while, …there’s no-support from the team-members, themselves.
But, something-changes-all-that. And as the players begin to submit to his plan, …and play his-style, …and buy-into his-way of doing-things, …that’s-when beautiful-things start-to-happen. It’s not-just that they start winning. But, it’s that they become a team. Submission is the key to bringing the team-together, …so that they’re on the same-page, …and they play-together.
Why in-the-world should we ‘submit’ to one-another?
Well, actually, …there’s no-reason in-the-world to submit! But there’s-every-reason in the kingdom-of-heaven to submit! Let me give you two of-those-reasons: First, Scripture tells us to “Submit-to-one-another out of reverence to Christ.” (Ephesians 5.21) Every-believer is a living-temple for the Holy Spirit. When we accept Jesus as our personal-Savior, …we are not-simply accepting a proposition, …or a truth, …or a statement-of-faith. We are accepting, …receiving the living Spirit of God. Jesus comes to us, …and He dwells within us. What that means is: …it affects how we respond to one-another. When we are called to submit to-one-another, …we are actually submitting to the living-Christ who dwells in our brother, and our sister!
Now, …I don’t know about you, …but that is absolutely-revolutionary to-me! It changes everything! It changes how I look at you. It changes how I feel about submitting. It changes my attitude toward this whole-thing because it’s not you and your DNA and your quirkiness and your strangeness that I’m submitting-to; …but it’s the blessed-Lord-God who dwells within you, …who has redeemed you, …who calls you His beloved-child ~ just-like He calls me a beloved-child!
What’s-that? I think I heard someone thinkin’-to-themselves: “Submit!?!... But, how can I trust them?”
We can trust-them because we trust God. And we trust that God is working in them. And we trust that the good-work that He has begun in them, …He is bringing it to perfect-completion. And even-if they haven’t handled our heart well in the past, …well, …they’re not-the-same-person that they used to-be. Besides, we’re all trying to learn to-put-into-practice what Jesus taught all-disciples:
“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them… Not so with you. Instead whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant”! (Matt 10.42-43)
The defining-picture of how church-family is to relate-to-one-another is not the sword, scepter, whip, or judge’s-gavel! The defining picture of how church-family is to relate to one another is the basin and the towel! Submit. Wash one another’s feet. Put your ego, …your will, …your ‘self’ on the back-burner. We submit to one another out of reverence to Christ, …the living-Christ who dwells in our brothers and sisters!
The second reason we submit to one another is because… each-believer has been gifted by the Heavenly Father. No one is exempt. No one is left out. No one is gift-less.
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.” (1 Cor. 12.4-6)
What this means is that no-one has everything-it-takes to do the work of the kingdom-of-God. We need each other. (We actually need-each-other much-more-than we even-realize!) Some have one-gift, …while others do-not. Our submission is not because they are somehow superior to us; …but because they have been gifted-differently by God. Not-everyone can step into a room filled with rowdy teen-agers, …and they can turn-the-tide of energy toward the things-of-God. But, some can!
Not-everyone can lead others to worship, …or pick-up an instrument and make music that lifts the soul-heavenward. But, some can!
Not-everyone is gifted with organizational and administrative skills to coordinate volunteers and resources for the purpose of a program or project. But some can!
Unity requires submission. And we submit because others have tools and gifts that we don’t have. No one can be top-dog on everything! In-all-probability, …you may not be top-dog on anything ~ …but, that’s o.k. because God has made us and gifted us in unique ways. And you are just-as-indispensable as someone-else with a different gift. He-who-has-called-you is faithful to equip you; …but we must also submit to the others that God has called and quipped to fill other-roles and perform other-tasks. Submission is an act of confession and an act of faith: It is confession, in-that we confess our own limitations; …and an act-of-faith in-that we trust that God is dwelling-in and working-through others in-such-a-way that I need to cooperate with them so that the purposes of God are realized!
II. Unity Requires Sacrifice
When you hear the word, ‘submit’, …you might think of that passage in Scripture that tells wives to submit to their husbands. But, what we don’t give as-much-attention-to is what-that-passage says to husbands: …it tells us to die for our wives! ~ Which brings us to the second ingredient in the recipe to unity: …not only are we to submit to one another out of reverence to Christ (who dwells in those that we submit to), …but we are also to sacrifice for one-another. Unity in the church-family requires sacrifice.
Marriage is a microcosm for the church in this: …that even-as the husband and wife submit to one another, …and as the marriage-partners make huge-personal-sacrifices for their spouse, …in the same-way, the members of the church are to submit-to-one-another, …and live sacrificially in relationship-to-one-another.
I am always amazed at how so-much-of life is woven-together by common-themes. Unity is one of those themes. In the Old Testament, the central-confession for ancient Israel was this:
“Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”
In the New Testament, Jesus affirms that He and the Father are One.
And, the Bible also talks about marriage using the same terminology. A marriage is a union of two individuals ~
“A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” (Gen. 2.24)
Unity is a common-theme throughout Scripture… Is it any wonder that one of the key ingredients in the recipe for unity, …one of the essential-ingredients is sacrifice?
In-order-for the body-of-Christ, …for-a-church-family to be unified, …we must practice sacrifice. Just-as a marriage will not be healthy without sacrifices on both-members’-parts, …so-churches must practice sacrifice, …in-order-to-be-healthy, …in order to be unified, …in order to be the dynamic-living-witness that God intends for us to be! Sacrifice is essential.
Does this seem like a difficult pill to swallow? Sacrifice leads to unity when we place our personal preferences, …our personal dreams, …sometimes our-preferred-way-of-doing-things on the altar of sacrifice. Unity will not be realized when we are unwilling to make personal sacrifices. As-a-matter-of-fact, to make sacrifices is a sign that we recognize: “it’s not about me!” It is all-about God and His plans for this church-family!
When I think about the fact that Jesus sacrificed so much for us ~ …why in the world would I not want to make personal sacrifices for the sake of others!?! I know that it’s not all about me! I also know that it really is “all about Jesus” ~ …and still-yet, even-though it was all-about-Him, …He laid-down the crown-of-glory in order to pick up a crown-of-thorns. Jesus was all about sacrifice; …His entire life was sacrifice-incarnate. Why wouldn’t the body of Christ , …the church, …the family-of-God …why wouldn’t we see that in order for us to be unified, …we must make sacrifices?
III. Unity Requires Purpose
A few weeks ago we discovered that ‘purpose’ was one of the key-marks of the church. A church is to be purposeful. And, our purpose is rooted in the will-and-plans of God. That’s why we should ask: “What is God up-to?” ~ …because that helps us discover what we should be up-to!
Purpose. Mission. God’s plans. If we aren’t centered-on God’s-purposes, …then we will not be unified. We will be divided. Fractured. Split by competing interests and conflicting dreams.
Maybe this’s-why Jesus taught us to pray, (in the Lord’s Prayer):
“Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven!” (Matt. 6.10)
Unity requires purpose. We have a unifying purpose ~ the will and the heart of God! If our unity is based on our own dreams and our own goals ~ …even-if those-things are contrived at through the process of community-collaboration ~ …we still won’t have the kind-of-unity that God intends for His people.
We can be united by all-kinds-of-goals and aims. United by a desire for fun. United by a fear of outsiders. United by common-hobbies. United by some charismatic-personality. United by some huge-project: …like building a tower that will reach-the-heavens, …or, united by a plan to have the biggest-and-the-best church-building in town! But, man-made, …earthly-purposes will never unite-us in the way that God wants His people to be united.
We are created to enjoy God, …and to enjoy Him for eternity. Our reason for being, …our reason for existing is founded in the heart and will of God the Father. It is not something that we contrive, make-up, …or vote on. It’s is all about discerning the will-of-God, …and seeking the will-of-God, …and doing the will-of-God. Jesus taught us to pray that-prayer (“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”) …for a reason.
The reason is: this is our purpose! As the body-of-Christ, it is our purpose to do the will of God. If we have some-other-purpose, …then we are mis-guided! If we have some-other-aim, …then we are missing-the-mark! If we have some-other-goal, …then we will-be-working at cross-purposes to God-Almighty! ~ And that’s-not-a-good-place to-be!
Unity requires purpose, …but that purpose must be rooted-in, …and derived-from the purposes-and-plans of God. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!”
CONCLUSION
We can be unified in seeking God’s will, …but our unity will not be healthy if we’re not sacrificial and submissive toward one another.
We can be sacrificial and submissive toward one another, …but totally missing the mark if we’re not also seeking the purposes of God.
Unity is a big-deal. But, it’s gotta have each of these three ingredients! One of the three, …even two-of-the-three will not lead to the kind-of-unity that makes-a-profound-impact on the world. But, if we get-it-right, …by the help of God, …if we seek to establish and build a unity among us that incorporates all-three of these ingredients: …submission, …sacrifice, …and godly-purpose, …then the world will sit-up and take notice!
Tom Wright, in speaking about Jesus’ prayer for Christian unity, has said:
“This unity isn’t to be just a formal arrangement. It isn’t just an outward thing. It is based on, and must mirror, nothing less than the unity between the father and the son…” (99)
Unity within the church is a big deal. If there’s any doubt about it’s significance, …consider that this was one of the last-things that He prayed for just before He was crucified. As the last matter-of-prayer, …it holds a very high place in-terms-of what His life-and-ministry were all-about.
Unity does not happen willy-nilly. It doesn’t happen magically. It doesn’t happen as the result of some brain-child who knows just-how to-mix the right-persons and personalities! Rather, unity happens when we – the body of Christ – submit to one another out of reverence for Jesus, …when we sacrifice for the benefit of the Body, …when we bend our will to the will-and-purposes of God! May it be so!
