John 17:20-23 “Unity”

I really love this prayer of Jesus that we've been looking at here in John 17.

I hope that you love it at least half as much as I do because we're going to be listening

in to Jesus here for two more weeks.

I know it's been a few already, but we've already noticed that even as Jesus is heading to the

cross, we are on His heart.

He's praying for us, as Derek reminded us earlier.

Isn't that an amazing comfort?

I think I say that every week.

But today we're getting to the verse that clarifies that reality most explicitly.

Where Jesus says, I pray for those who will believe in me through the word of my disciples.

You, me, Southwood Church, our family on His heart.

Our names on His hands.

Our needs on His lips.

Talking to His Father about us.

Every week we've been marveling at a different aspect of Jesus praying for us.

Today I want to remind you that He not only prayed for you then, 2,000 years ago, but He still

prays for you today.

He always lives to intercede for us, Hebrews 7.25.

Has someone ever said to you, or maybe you've said to someone else,

thank you so much for praying for me.

When I hear you praying for me, it's such a great encouragement and comfort to me that

you're praying for me.

When your grace group gathers around you as you hurt and someone is praying for you, what

do you feel?

Don't you feel cared for and valued?

Doesn't that lift your spirits?

Imagine the comfort, the joy of hearing Jesus pray for you.

He is.

You can even hear some of what's on His heart here in John 17.

So we talk a lot about being the hands and the feet of Jesus to show His love to our neighbors.

And to use that same analogy, you can be the lips of Jesus when you pray for someone.

Because He loves them like that too.

He prays for them.

When your grace group gathers to pray, you are being the lips, even the heart of Jesus to one

another.

You're helping each other remember that He still prays for us.

Even as you use His words to actually hear Him praying.

Prayers we know His Father hears.

Prayers we know His Father answers.

And as Jesus, the most righteous man ever, His prayers availeth much.

What a great Savior we have to be praying for us.

What a privilege it is to be His, right?

And then to be His hands and feet and lips to one another and to this world.

I hope you'll hear Jesus praying for you today and that you'll help others to hear Him as

you pray with them.

Let's pray together and then we'll listen in to Jesus praying again.

Jesus, we are so grateful that you pray for us.

Jesus, I am very grateful right now.

I need you.

I need to hear your word.

I need to know your voice.

I need to embrace its hope and life and love.

We need that.

We need you every hour.

We need you.

And right now especially, thank you for your word.

Lord, that we will hear your voice.

Would you speak it to our hearts by your Spirit?

We ask in your name.

Amen.

John 17 at verse 20.

Jesus continues talking to His Father.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us,

so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.

I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one,

so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Thus far, God's holy word for which we give Him thanks.

Last week, we heard Jesus praying to the Father to keep us safe, set apart for Himself,

and then to send us into the world.

Now, you may have noticed in those verses, Jesus is praying for our unity.

Unity.

Some see unity as the theme of this entire prayer.

And while I don't necessarily agree with that, Jesus does pray for it three times.

Unity is a buzzword these days, isn't it?

Perhaps because people are so divided these days that unity seems unattainable and enviable.

We want it in families, in communities, in churches, in nations.

But where does unity come from?

As Jesus prays for it, He's going to point us to its source.

Does unity just happen when we quit caring?

We don't care about anything else but unity.

We just try to get along with everybody.

We lower the bar where there's no truth, no real passion for anything except for unity itself.

Is that the source of unity?

You'll hear that in some churches.

But Jesus says it's actually the opposite.

And this is true on a team or in a company, but it's especially true among the people of God.

See, the source of Christian unity is a shared relationship, a shared passion for God, for His truth, for His mission.

Notice this back in verse 11.

It's the first time in this prayer Jesus prays for our unity, for us to be one.

It's unity that results from being kept in relationship with the one true God.

Protect them, keep them faithful, connected to You, Father, that they may be one, even as we are one.

The image of this that has always helped me is the image of an orchestra.

Imagine that we had this morning on stage a 100-piece orchestra, right?

And they all showed up and wanted to get their instruments in tune to get started.

If each of them was personally passionate about unity and turned to the person next to them and said,

hey, let's start playing our instruments and get in tune, you would have a cacophony of French horns and violins and tubas and whatever else was up here.

They would all be very loud and probably for quite some time very out of tune with one another across the stage.

Instead, how do you get a unified pitch in a group like that?

You musicians know how you do it.

One clarion note is played and each instrument tunes to that note.

Soon, as each does that, what do you have?

You don't have a hundred different notes.

You now have all of them unified on one pitch together in beautiful harmony because they were attuned to the one note.

That's what Jesus is talking about here as the source of our unity.

It's this special relationship that He shares with His Father that, remember, He's inviting us into it.

Verse 21, they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you that they also may be in us.

In other words, we're different in so many ways, but the essence of life for us is knowing Jesus.

Our shared passion is relationship with Jesus.

Our common mission is the glory of Jesus.

And the more that that becomes true of each one of us individually, the more perfectly we become one.

The more on pitch we are together, the more we rejoice in the glorious Savior than anything else in the world.

See, what Jesus is praying for is more than just friendship, where we share lots in common.

That happens, that's a good thing, but this is the unity of the Trinity.

He longs for us to share that spiritual unity because the most important thing about me is the relationship with God that I have because His Spirit dwells in me.

This, by the way, has always been how God's people find unity.

It comes not from our efforts at unity, looking around at one another.

Not there first, but from our relationship with God, looking up to Him.

Psalm 133 is a hymn in praise of unity about how good unity is, how pleasant it is when we live like that, connected, united to one another.

It has two images in this short psalm.

The first is the oil flowing down the head to set the priest apart, and then it's down to his beard, and then down to his robes.

See, unity in relationship with God that then flows down to unite us with one another as those set apart as His people.

The second image has a very similar point.

The dew on Mount Hermon, that's the highest point in all of Israel, flows down to Mount Zion below to all God's people.

As we are more deeply and passionately united to God Himself, see, then unity flows down to where we share it with one another.

So that when we are distracted from God and His glory, when we're not looking up together, we feel very much that we are divided.

When that's not what's so important to us, we're easily divided from one another.

But that's so that when we do see God clearly, we begin to notice one another, to welcome one another, to honor one another in very practical ways.

It looks like something in our relationships.

Ephesians 4 talks about the unity of God's people this way.

Verse 3, if we're eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, that's what He calls us to.

And here's why.

There's one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Do you see there the personal nature of our unity?

It doesn't say one language, one nation, one social class, one personality type.

All of you get it together.

That's not what it says.

It says one Father.

Unity comes from being defined by His adopting love.

It says one Lord.

Unity comes from being united to Jesus in baptism, knowing Him as life's greatest treasure.

It says one Spirit.

Unity comes from being united as part of the body of Christ, gifted for your special place in it.

That same heart's in 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul talks about us being many members with lots of unique and different gifts,

but we're one body.

Verse 13, for in one Spirit we became one body.

No longer separated by ethnic or religious background.

No longer separated by social class.

No, we're one.

This is what the gospel of Jesus, the salvation God brings to us, the faith that we have in Him does to us.

It achieves unity from otherwise very different people because even if there's nothing else that we share,

we share the thing at the top.

Number one, the most important reality in life is the same for us.

When have you experienced that kind of unity?

As you've delighted in Jesus, as you've seen Him most clearly, as your great treasure.

I felt it in India with people that I struggle to communicate with in words,

but when we start doing things like singing praises to Jesus, like praying for someone together,

like sharing the good news of Jesus from a passage in the Bible that I know what we must be talking about,

my heart soars.

This is Pastor Venu.

Venu and I have gotten to be good friends.

I met him seven years ago, the first time I went to India.

He's traveled with me each time I've gone.

We've shared Jesus in homes and cars and schools and churches.

We've prayed with people who were hurting.

We shared with each other about the challenges of life with Jesus and marriage and ministry and parenting and whatever else.

And after just a few days of that, our hearts were so united that we still, from across the globe,

share and pray for one another several years later now.

At the end of our trip, he introduced me at one Bible school as,

this is my brother, Pastor Will.

And one of the students there who knew Venu well and loved him said,

your brother?

And we looked at each other like, are you kidding me?

Have you seen us?

Do we look like brothers?

Brothers?

And we talked later that outwardly we may not look like brothers,

but we shared so much inwardly.

The same spirit.

The same Savior.

The same Father.

Truly, he was right.

Brothers from across the globe.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a great British preacher of the last century,

preached actually 80-some sermons on this passage, John 17.

So you do the math.

I am less than 10% the preacher that he is.

I'm stopping at five.

Sermons are so helpful.

One of the things he shares in them is his own experience

of Christian unity across class boundaries.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones was raised in the upper crust of English aristocratic society.

Think estates and drawing rooms.

And for those of you who this means something to,

Downton Abbey, that's where you are, okay?

And it was just understood that many of the working classes were beneath you.

He never related with them.

It wasn't part of his life.

He was a very successful medical doctor when later in life he met Jesus.

Several years after that he became a pastor

and was called to a small rural church in Wales

where many of his parishioners were illiterate.

And he found, much to his surprise, he acknowledges,

an immediate affection for them.

And even more surprisingly than that, that he learned from them.

He was told that would never happen.

That he would never have that kind of experience with people like this.

But something had changed.

Now because of his connection with Jesus,

he had a connection with people that he never would have cared about before.

Who is that for you?

Maybe you felt this in a grace group.

With people that you now treasure, that you look and think,

I never would have ever met or hung out with this person.

Ever.

Ever.

We wouldn't have given each other the time of day.

And now we meet and pray for one another

and we encourage one another in Christ

because we share nothing else.

We never get distracted on any other topic.

There's nothing else that we would both want to talk about.

I love connecting with people with shared interests.

I love connecting other people who have shared interests.

But some of my most spiritually encouraging relationships

come with those that I share little else with

but Jesus.

Young people, you can experience this too.

You also live in a world where everyone is desperate to belong.

How do I fit in?

He wants to find his group.

She wants to find her people.

The ones you know that we're just like.

But I got to tell you, it's beautiful when the kids from the drama club

and the guy from the football team

and the band kid and the academic team member

and the cheerleader and the special ed student,

when they all welcome one another into real friendship.

And that's hard, y'all.

I'm not pretending that's easy.

But when you all love Jesus, you can actually love beyond those differences.

You can love in those differences.

You can even become a safe group for other people who don't seem to fit.

They belong with you.

That's where they belong.

I hope you've tasted that Christian unity before, all of you, no matter how old you are.

It's not to be taken for granted.

Jesus prays for it multiple times, I think partly because we struggle to live in this.

Even though Jesus has made it a reality by adopting us into his family,

it is true that we are united, young people and adults and kids and senior citizens.

But church people have been good at parties for a long time,

all the way since back in Corinth.

And I don't mean the kind of parties with cake and streamers.

Those are good parties.

I'll come to those.

I mean, I follow Paul and I follow Apollos.

I follow Luther and I follow Calvin.

I follow hymns and I follow praise songs.

For some of you, this may have been what turned you off to the church before.

Many of you have told me this.

That you felt like it was a place where you were unwelcome,

like you didn't fit or belong in that group,

like you would actually have to agree with them on everything

and like all of the same things that they did

and feel the same way about everything to belong.

And y'all, that is awful because it excludes people.

And that hurts people.

But it is even worse because it is preaching

that something else is more important than Jesus.

Do you see that?

When we say you don't belong here until you like everything I like,

until you do things the way we do them,

until you look and dress and act the same way we do,

it says that's more important than Jesus.

I can't be united to you until you are like me.

And Jesus says you are united to them because of me,

not because of what you look like or what they do.

What's the solution?

What's the solution in Corinth and for us

when we get divided in non-gospel party spirit like that?

It's the one clear note of Jesus.

I follow Christ, right?

It's why the great creeds that are shared by Christians

throughout the centuries focus on the person of God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit over and over again.

I'm not saying the other conversations don't have their place.

They do.

They're fun to talk about after we're clear that we're united in Christ,

that it's a family conversation.

That's why we cheer for other churches in town.

We're not competing against them.

That's why we speak the truth in love,

why we forgive one another,

why we serve one another.

See, the more we find life in relationship with Jesus,

not in any of the secondary things that we define ourselves by,

then the more passionately we move forward together in unity.

Let me make one more application of this just briefly

about our Christian unity on Tuesday.

By the way, I'm glad that my talking about this makes many of you nervous.

That way I'm not alone.

I hope it is not lost on you that same Father, same Savior, same Spirit

does not say same political party.

It's not in there.

The unity of God's people is not organizational.

Jesus wasn't Democrat or Republican or third party.

In fact, among his 12 disciples were political opponents.

Matthew, the tax collector who had so cozied up to the idea of Rome being there

that he worked for them.

Simon the zealot on the other end of the spectrum

who wanted Rome out of there as fast and as strong as possible.

Right there among Jesus' disciples.

So we must guard against speaking

as though a Christian must vote a particular way

in order to be following Jesus.

See, when we speak that way,

it leads people to those faulty conclusions

I was just talking about.

Faulty conclusions about the person of Jesus,

the mission of his church,

the nature of his kingdom.

Now, certainly, God's Word and his Spirit

guide us in engaging

in all of life, including politics.

And those are good conversations.

We can talk about those.

But we are united

by something way more important than politics.

By someone way more powerful

than any human leader.

God's people are united

not even by a constitution,

but by a crucifixion, right?

That's what we're about together.

Don't forget that.

That's what unites us to one another

today and Wednesday and next Sunday

and well beyond that.

I hope you have brothers and sisters

with whom you disagree politically.

Not just so you can change one another's minds

before Tuesday.

That's pretty unlikely.

But so you can keep one another focused

on the main thing.

Where our life,

our eternal life is found.

Our hope and confidence this week,

like every other week,

maybe especially this week,

is found in the King of Kings.

In the joy of being united

to a God who loves us

and prays for us.

That is something to be excited about.

It's something to be passionate about.

You can know you can wake up excited

on Wednesday because that will be true

and you'll be on His mission

for His glory

no matter whatever other circumstances

are going on.

Back to John 17.

Aren't you glad?

I am.

If being passionately connected to Jesus

is the source of Christian unity,

if that's how we get connected,

being passionately involved in His mission

is the result.

Perhaps better said,

Jesus accomplishing His mission

of connecting others to Him

is the result of our unity in Him.

Look at verse 21.

You may have noticed this

when we read it the first time.

That they all may be one

so that the world may believe

that you have sent me.

Verse 23.

That they may become perfectly one

so that the world may know

that you sent me

and loved them

even as you loved me.

What's the result

of otherwise different people

being united in Christ?

It's that people looking on

realize that something otherworldly

is going on.

We live in a divided world,

don't we?

Watch how most of the United States

feel on Tuesday

and how united they seem.

We hate the division, don't we?

We hate feeling that

we don't like it inside of ourselves,

we don't like it around us,

and a divided church

cannot heal the wounds

of a divided world.

We'll just make it worse.

We'll just bring some more division

along with us.

That's not what God has called us to.

He's called us to something distinct

that's going to impact the world.

When otherwise divided people

become unified,

we want to know how.

How did that happen?

How did that Auburn guy

marry that Bama girl?

What?

How did that Jew and Gentile

share in life and worship

all the time?

How did they figure out?

How did they figure out where to go?

How did they figure out what day?

How did they walk around

loving each other like that?

They used to hate each other.

How did that retired

finance exec

Kamala fan

grandmother

and that unemployed

20-something high school

dropout MAGA single mom

love one another so much?

Why do they hang out

all the time?

How come they seem

to really enjoy it?

That's the power

of Jesus' cross.

We don't know how to explain

that in human terms.

We have to say there's something

else beyond us

that brought us together

because it's nothing about us.

I've read and wrestled this week

over what Jesus is praying

will happen.

This idea that

the world is impacted.

How exactly does that happen?

How does our unity

produce an impact

on the world?

Maybe you've thought that before.

We're like,

cool,

so we could all be unified

and I'm not sure

anybody would notice

you may think.

What's he saying?

Jesus says it twice

that this is

what he's praying for

and it's not

as I figured

that if all of us Christians

just get in one

global denomination

I don't even know

what to call it

but if we just did that

the world will all of a sudden

convert to Christianity.

That's not what

Jesus is saying.

Remember,

it's not an organizational unity.

The source is that personal

spiritual relationship

with the Trinity.

Jesus is also not saying

that if all Christians

just worked together better

we would evangelize the world.

No.

It certainly helps

when we labor together

for the kingdom

rather than against one another

but best I can tell

what Jesus is saying

in his prayer

is that when all Christians

are united

in dependence on Jesus

for their relationship

with the Father

for the relationship

they were made for

for their life

reflecting the image

of God

the way he created them to

the world sees

the message of Jesus

clearly

and the love of the Father

truly.

They see the gospel

the good news

that Jesus claims

that he alone

connects us to our maker

and we're all wondering

is God there

and how do I know him

and if he's real

what would it look like

for me to have a relationship

and Jesus says

I am the way

and the truth

and the life

and for that relationship

you were made for.

Secondly

that God loves us

not because of how

we perform

but because of how

Jesus has performed.

In fact

Jesus claims here

did you notice

at the end

that God loves us

as he loves him.

Good stuff for next week

okay

we're coming back.

love

that God would love

us like that.

See whether the world

embraces Jesus

or not

Christian unity

sounds that

clear note

the one clear note

that clear

gospel message

of hope

and joy

and life

that is sounded

so clearly

in the pages of scripture

it is in scripture

alone

that we find out

that hope

and that life

is found by grace alone

through faith alone

through faith alone

in Christ alone

and that message

sounded so clearly

when we're all

desperately needing him

when we unite

around our need

for him

and his meeting

our need

and Jesus longs

to see that happen

he prays for our unity

and that our unity

will spread his glory

and grace

to the whole world

so that the world

will know

not how great

our organizational skills are

and that we all got together

on the same page

not how great

the entertainment

we produce is

and this is the best show

in town

on Sunday morning

no

how great

our savior

is

that's what they

see

when we're united

in this way

around that

savior

and that relationship

the beauty

of Christian unity

is that it can actually

be a joy

for you to experience

and to live in

not a burden

that you have to go

achieve

that's one of the

beautiful things

about this passage

Jesus

still

unifies us

not only is he still

praying for our unity

but listen to verse 22

Jesus isn't saying

go out there

and be more unified

you can do it

what does verse 22 say

Jesus is sharing

divine glory

with us

he's giving it to us

in order that we may be

one

to bring us

to perfect unity

that we may be

one bride

purified by him

for him

it's the glory

of that Trinitarian

relationship

that he is inviting us into

he's inviting you

this morning

to see that relationship

and that savior

as the most wonderful

the most important part

of your whole life

what most delights you

what most unites you

to anyone else

makes you most eager

to be in relationship

with them

and Christian unity

flows down

as a byproduct

of that gracious gift

that we're united

to him

and so we get that gift

and we get to keep

opening it together

and enjoying it

together

as we feed the hungry

as we pray for one another

in our grace groups

as we share the good news

and take it to the world

and around the world

till his glory

is known everywhere

by everyone

that's his heart for us

let's pray

and ask for his help

Jesus would you indeed

make us one

we believe God

is answering

that prayer

and continues to

even in a culture

of division

that he's exalting you

and we're seeing you

as more needful

and we're seeing you

as more beautiful

and we're seeing you

as our life

more and more

and we pray

that that would

impact the world

in ways beyond

what we could plan for

don't take our strategies

work beyond us

do exceeding abundantly

beyond all we would ask

or imagine

because of your power

that is at work

within us

because your spirit

is uniting us

and is convincing

the world

that you sent Jesus

because you love them

as much as you love him

we thank you

for your love

and we pray

that we would find

joy in life in it

even today

in Jesus name

amen

for more information

visit us online

at southwood.org

on keep going

on court

and we see you

in life

there

we can't

that was

at us

we'd like to say

you

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