John 17:20-26 Palm Sunday 2004
The Path to Unity
Palm Sunday
The Luke account:
Luke 19:41As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes.
4 days later, Jesus is praying that the future church will recognize what will bring us peace. This prayer occurs just hours before Jesus is arrested. He knows that he will be arrested, and he knows that he will die. He prays for himself, for his disciples, and now, for those who will believe because of the disciples testimony (us). He could have prayed for many things, but at this intense and urgent time, what he concentrates on is unity: that we would be one.
Show the prayer
Jesus’ prayer for the church – for unity
Why?
That the world might know
He says it twice here – If the church is one, then people will know that Jesus is the Son of God, sent from the Father.
Isn’t this just like God – it is not if we get all of our arguments straight, it is not even if we perform miracles (although both of these help) it is not if we get everything perfect but, if we learn to be one people, unified together, that the world that looks on will know that Jesus is the Son of God!
This is not too hard to see today – the question that gets asked most is if the church has the truth, then why are there so many divisions? I gets asked very honestly by people seeking God, and it gets asked cynically by people who just want to argue.
We have whole books written on overcoming hurdles to evangelism, books that give well thought out answers to every conceivable question, books that talk about the role of signs and wonders in opening people’s mind to the gospel. But the greatest hurdle to people accepting the truth of the Gospel is not in their hearts or minds – it is in the disunity of the church. If we truly have a heart for seeing people turn to Jesus, we will have a heart for unity.
John 13:35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
It works! Acts 2:42-47
42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
-“and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
You can see that the unity that they had in Acts 2 was not just a philosophical or theoretical unity, but a very practical, real loving unity.
If you come from a dysfunctional family, and you see a family that is unified and loving, wouldn’t you want to be part of that family
This close unity is called fellowship, and John writes of the close connection between unity/fellowship and evangelism in his first letter
1 John 1:3
3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
That we might know
In his letters, John is writing to a group of Christians who were being attacked by people who argued against their belief. Some of the Christians began to wonder if they actually had the truth.
John points, not to clever arguments, but to the Spirit living within them and the love that is between them as proof of the truth.
1 John 4:12-16
12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
Our unity is a sign both to the world around us and to ourselves that we have found the truth.
How do we make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit?
By remaining “In Christ” Verse 21b & 23
22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me.
In John 15, Jesus uses this amazing image of the vine and the branches, he says “5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
If Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, we do not stay unified with the other branches by first concentration on our unity with them, but by first concentration on our unity with the Vine. Jesus is what holds us together. When we take our eyes off him, and try to create unity outside of our connection with him, that is when our efforts go awry. Jesus says that we can do nothing apart from him. Our first task in making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit is to remain in Christ – He is our unity, he is our peace.
The other image of the church that we have is that of a body
Ephesians 4:15- 16 “speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
The reason that my body parts work together is that they are all connected to my head
What unifies us is that we all keep our eyes on Jesus, we are connected to him. Like a triangle with God at the top, as we get closer to him, we will also get closer to each other.
How to remain in Christ
Practicing the presence of God
Remember that you are always with him, at home, at work, in recreation- talk to him, thank him, ask him about your life
This takes practice. When he recognize that we have been living outside of an awareness of his presence, we need to get back in to the habit.
Van Morrison sings
When will I ever learn to live in God?
When will I ever learn?
He gives me everything I need and more.
When will I ever learn?
Obeying his commands – John 15:10
10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
Loving one another
John 15:17
17This is my command: Love each other.
This is not about feeling more love for each other, it is about acting in loving ways to each other.
In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, "Do not waste your time bothering whether you ’love’ your neighbor act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less."
Notice the circular logic? We remain unified by remaining in Christ, we remain in him by obeying his commands, and his command is to love one another. We remain unified by loving each other with our eyes firmly set on Jesus.
How do we make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit?
By Giving glory away.
Do you remember how the prayer started ? With this relationship in the trinity marked by a Glory-giving spiral. The Father gives glory to the Son so that the Son can give glory to the Father. The Spirit Glorifies both and they glorify him.
This is what brings about the amazing unity in the Godhead, and is what will bring about unity in the church. We are not naturally glory givers – we are naturally glory seekers, wanting to be noticed for what we do well, wanting praise and honor, wanting positions of power.
The way that we will preserve the unity that God has given us in the church is to learn to give the glory to God yes, but to also give it to each other. To have others interests before our own, to lift each other up,
Romans 12:10
10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Philippians 2
1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
We must create the habit of giving glory away, and in that way preserve the unity that God has given us through Jesus.
Conclusion
As we head in to Holy Week and remember all hat Jesus went through o buy our souls back from destruction, we want to honor him.
In order to honor him we must listen to his final words before his arrest, this desperate prayer for unity in the church.
We must be unified
To glorify a unified God
For the sake of people who haven’t yet believed
Because this is what we are created for, to live in the image of God as unified as He is.
