Part 3: Indivisible

January 22, 2016                      NOTES NOT EDITED
Under God:  Pt. 3, “Indivisible”

John 17:1-26

SIS: We honor God and increase our effectiveness as His ambassadors by being united.

Poet John Donne wrote, "No man is an island." We are all interdependent to some degree on others. Jesus, shortly before His crucifixion prayed for His disciples that they "would be one" (Jn. 17:21). Our Pledge of Allegiance pleads that we as a nation would be "Indivisible."

Unity is a precious commodity--and sadly, quite scarce in our churches and nation today, as evidenced by the rioting, destruction, and disrespect during the recent inauguration of our President.

The root of the problem seems to be that "All men (and women) are an island." We are all isolated from each other by what philosophers call the "egocentric predicament."

William James, the philosopher, explains this predicament. He said, "Whenever two people meet there are six people present. There are the two men as they see themselves. There are two men as each man sees the other; and two men as they actually are."

The goal of unity is to see others as they actually are: the handiwork of a Creator that loves them so much that He sent His Only Son to die on the cross so that they may have eternal life." Even though we might be quite different islands, we can push our way through the thick underbrush of our egocentric presuppositions to try to understand better those who may no be like us.

If God can love the "whole world" that is as different from Himself as east is from west, then certainly, with a little effort, we can find those common values that unite us. This will never be easy, and sadly, in some cases impossible. But, we should try. Unity is that important.

A man by the name of Roy C. Cook once wrote, "I believe every man is an island; but there are no limits to the bridges or harbors one can build."

I will explore the idea of unity, or what it means to be "indivisible," this coming Sunday, Lord willing. My particular focus will be upon unity in the church, but the principles also may be applied to build bridges and harbors in our nation.  This building project must begin in the Church of God.  Division is a spiritual matter at its root.  We must strike at the root that the tree of our common commerce might be healthy.

As I said above, on the night before the Lord Jesus Christ would hang mercilessly upon a cross, incurring all the scorn and pain magnified by the sin of every person who had every lived or ever will live, Jesus prayed:

“May they all be one.”

Let’s join in a unified voice reading from the Lord’s Prayer, the One He prayed on the eve of His passion.  READ Jn. 17:20-23.

One of the great challenges of a Baptist church, which holds to the immutable, authoritative Word of God that declares what is sin in the eyes of God, is that we can focus too often on what we are “against” and forget what we are “for.”  This message seeks to help us strike a balance between our role as prophets of God thundering out God’s invectives against sin, and our role as “healers” and “bridge builders” inviting others to celebrate the purpose and plan of God that will unite us.  This pursuit of unity must begin in the House of God.

In order to promote harmony we must have an understanding of what we have in common.

1.  We have a common Father (1-5)

Before Jesus prayed for others, He prayed for Himself.

Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said:

Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You, ² for You gave Him authority over all flesh; so He may give eternal life to all You have given Him. ³ This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent —Jesus Christ. ⁴ I have glorified You on the earth by completing the work You gave Me to do. ⁵ Now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with that glory I had with You before the world existed.

Prayer is powerful, not so much because it changes “things,” but because it changes the one who prays.  Make no mistake, persistent, passionate, purposeful prayer is powerful to change circumstances and situations.  Prayer can make the see stand still and the lame stand up.  Prayer can quiet the heart and bring sound to deaf ears.  Prayer is powerful because prayer DOES CHANGE THINGS!

But, long before prayer changes things, it changes the one who prays.
Prayer gives you and “uplook that changes your outlook.”

Notice in verse one it says, “Jesus . . . looked up to heaven.”  So often the divisiveness in our lives stems from looking “outward” at our differences before we look “upward” to our common Father.  For the Jews of His day, the fact that Jesus referred to God as “Father” inflamed their hatred against him and incited the calls to crucify Him for blasphemy.  Recall one such incident in the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 10:25-31):

Jesus answered them. “The works that I do in My Father’s name testify about Me. ²⁶ But you don’t believe because you are not My sheep.  ^{u 27} My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish —ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ The Father and I are one.”  ³¹ Again the Jews picked up rocks to stone Him.

Stoning to death was the Jewish punishment for blasphemy, calling Himself the Son of God, or referring to Himself and God as one.  For the Jews, God was too distant, too holy, utterly unapproachable except for one time each year, by one High Priest, under strict religious rituals.  To refer to God as Father, one Who is approachable, and desirous of fellowship with His creatures, was absolute blasphemy and only death could atone for such a grievous error.

Yet, notice how Jesus taught us to pray.  Jesus said, begin by saying,

Our Father in heaven (Mt. 6:9)

Notice the plural pronoun, “Our.”  In God’s Providence and through the Lord’s Passion, Yahweh is “our” Father, just as He is the Father of Jesus.  The Bible declares that Jesus Christ, by the foreknowledge and predestination of God, is the firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29).

The foundation for unity among the brothers and sisters in the church is we share a “common Father.”  In a lesser way, since we do not know whom God may have predestined to be part of His family, we must treat others as if they may share our common father.  Only in the rarest and most extreme case where evidence would suggest otherwise, we must treat others as part of our family.

Jesus had a different outlook on others because He first looked up to God.  Our relationship with God is the “common denominator of unity.”  But, Jesus not only looked up, but He looked beyond.

² for You gave Him authority over all flesh; so He may give eternal life to all You have given Him. ³ This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent —Jesus Christ. ⁴ I have glorified You on the earth by completing the work You gave Me to do.

Jesus not only looked beyond Himself, He looked beyond this world.  Too often we divide ourselves up according to “matters of the flesh” (v2).  We focus on what the flesh dictates, not the Spirit.  We focus on the temporal, not the eternal.  This will always lead to competition and division.  Jesus looked beyond the “flesh” (v2) to “eternal life” (vv2, 3).  A heavenly prayer gives one an eternal perspective. 

To establish and maintain unity, especially in the church, we need to look up to heaven and acknowledge our Common Father.

2.  We also have a common Message (vv6-19)

In decades past, the prevailing (and incorrect) theological position of liberal theologians revolved around two primary issues:  the Fatherhood of God, and the corollary of the Brotherhood of man.  While the Bible teaches this throughout the holy text, it is not the “biblical” principle that liberal theologians were teaching.  This liberal idea of the “Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man,” became the foundation for a renewed focus on universalism, which is the idea that men and women are “brothers and sisters” apart from a relationship with God, through Christ alone, as outlined in the Bible.

There can be no unity unless we come to a correct and complete understanding of our Common Message, the Bible.  In verses 6 through 19 Jesus prays for His disciples to be “one” (v11).  Numerous times, Jesus references a common message that unites the followers in Christ.  Let’s survey these references to the common message of truth, recorded in the Bible, that unite believers.

Verse 6 says, ⁶ I have revealed Your name to the men You gave Me  from the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me,

and they have kept Your word.

Verses 7-8 declare, ⁷ Now they know that all things You have given to Me are from You, ⁸ because the words that You gave Me, I have given them. They have received them and have known for certain

that I came from You. They have believed that You sent Me.

Now, how would they be able to “know that all Jesus taught came from God” and “know for certain Jesus came from God and was sent from God?”  How would they measure the “truth value” of the claims Jesus made that He was from God?  The answer is found in verse 12:

that the Scripture may be fulfilled

The “Scripture” Jesus referred to was the Old Testament.  The New Testament was being lived out and had not yet been written down.  The whole text of the Old Testament pointed to a Coming Messiah.  There are over 400 plus prophecies and foreshadowings of Christ, the Messiah in the Old Testament (according to Associates for Biblical Research).  Jesus said, “These are the Scriptures that testify about Me” (Jn 5:39). The disciples saw these prophesies being fulfilled before their eyes.  They would come to have even a clearer perspective after Jesus died and was raised again.

These prophecies authenticate the Bible as a “miraculous and accurate record of God to man.”  Christians must find common ground in the Scriptures.  It cannot be found anywhere else.  Science cannot provide a ground for truth.  It is always changing.  Philosophy cannot provide a ground of truth.  It is dependent upon the “flesh” which is corrupt and full of error.  Certainly, politicians cannot provide a common foundation of truth upon which to build unity. The Koran, nor any other religious writing, cannot match the accuracy and historicity of the Bible. 

The Christian church is divided up into denominational units—and I am speaking of the True Church—because of differing perspectives on the doctrines taught in the Bible.  Yet, it is from the Bible that these differing perspectives come, not some pagan religious Scripture, not science, and certainly not the pontifications of politicians.  The Bible is the common message that provides the only sure foundation for unity.  The Bible is a sure foundation because the Bible is “True!”

Look at verse 14, “I have given them Your word,” and then verse 17, “Sanctify them (make them holy) by the truth; Your word is truth.”

This is a classical, valid logical syllogism:  The Bible contains the words given by Jesus; the words given by Jesus are true; therefore the Bible is true.

No other book, ancient or modern, has been attested by so great a study, nor withstood such a great attack of skepticism, than the Bible.  The church must wean itself from the principles of marketing and the promotion of programs and return to a passionate study and application of the Bible.

Our unity is founded upon a common message, the Bible

Our unity derives from a Common Father, rests securely on a Common Message, and is cemented by

3.  a Common Mission (20-26)

Verse 20 begins a new section in which Jesus addresses not only the disciples that were following Him during His earthly ministry, but all that would follow through the ages.  He references a on-going mission based upon sharing the message of the gospel.  Let’s read it:

²⁰ I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me

through their message.

Jesus goes on to reference unity again, centered around this mission of spreading the Gospel.  In verse 21 we read

²¹ May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You.  May they also be one in Us, 

so the world may believe You sent Me.

Through our Common Message many will believe.  The purpose for unity is to “complete the work” that God has entrusted to us—“Go into all the world and make disciples” (Mt. 28:19)—just like Jesus completed the work God had sent Him to complete.  Look back at verse 4

⁴ I have glorified You on the earth

by completing the work You gave Me to do

Our mission is to continue the plan of God to reach the world with the gospel.  As great as the earthly ministry of Jesus was, He Himself said, “I assure you: The one who believes in Me  will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father” (Jn. 14:12).

Just as Jesus glorified the Father by completing His earthly mission, we also glorify the Father by completing our earthly mission, which is to make disciples that are “fully functioning followers of Christ.”

As we learned in the first message of this series, we are “Ambassadors for Christ continuing a ministry of reconciling lost souls to God” (2Cor. 5:20).  We learned that reconciliation involves “negotiating with lost people on behalf of Christ.”  This is our common mission around which we must unify.  Ours is a “spiritual” mission, not an earthly mission. 

Again, in our second message in this series, we learned that our mission and calling in life is spiritual, not physical; eternal not political; and transformational, not informational.  Our mission and purpose in life is an extension of the ministry and purpose of the Lord’s life.  He describes this “extension” in several verses in chapter 17.

In verse 11 Jesus says, “I am no longer in the world but they are in the world.”  He goes on to explain this idea of our ministry as an extension of His ministry in verses 16-18:

¹⁶ They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by the truth;  Your word is truth. ¹⁸ As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

God has given us a “common mission” as the church.  We must unify around that mission and not allow any external factors or circumstances to set us on a detour.  We must participate in politics, but that is not our mission.  We must do good works in our communities, but that is not our mission.  We must gather to worship, study, and pray, but that is not our mission. 

Our mission is now and has always been, “Go make disciples.”  That doesn’t mean, “go make Democrats; or go make Republicans.”  Our participation in the politics of our nation must have as the “end game” the purpose of “making disciples.”  It is easy to get sidetracked by letting the good usurp the place of the best.  While it is “good” to participate in the political arena to bring about change to help make life better for all, it is “best” if we, the church, focus on “making disciples.”  The “best” way to really change our communities and our nation, and even the world, is to share the gospel and let God change hearts! 

We must continually reevaluate our life as a church to assure that we are “keeping the main thing, the main thing!”

The prayer of Jesus recorded in John 17 is a prayer for unity.  We will never be a One Nation . . . Indivisible, until we are a nation that is Under God.  We will never be a nation Under God, in any significant way, until we in the Church are unified under our Common Father, unified around our Common Message, and unified by our Common Mission.

Jesus prayed for unity.  Our Pledge of Allegiance pleads for unity.  Unity is precious and powerful and without it no church can thrive and no nation can survive.

There’s a story I read about a tiny pygmy from a tribe in Africa.  A man on safari saw a very strange sight.  This tiny pygmy, barely four feet tall, was standing by a huge rhinoceros he had killed.  The man on safari thought it was an incredible sight.  A rhinoceros is a huge, dangerous beast, and the pygmy was so tiny.  The passerby asked the little man, “Did you kill that?”  The tiny pygmy replied with a noticeable feeling of pride, “Yes I did.”  The man inquired further, “Well, how did you kill such a huge, dangerous beast?”  The pygmy replied, “Yep! I killed this rhinoceros with my club!”  The man on safari could not believe it.  Confused he asked, “Well, how big is your club?”  The tiny hunter replied, “Oh, there are about a hundred of us!”

That’s the power of unity.  Our club is God’s church.  When we are all unified around our Common Father, our Common Message, and Our Common mission, no beast is too big or too fierce for us to bring down.

Let us truly be “One Holy Nation, Under God, and Indivisble.”  As such, we are unstoppable.