Ressurection Hope 4 - Unity in Christ

Restoring Hope, Week 4

Unity in Christ

John 17:20-26; Ephesians 4

Restoring Hope slide

Good morning and welcome to worship on this Confirmation Sunday! What a joy it is to gather in worship to celebrate the decisions of these young ladies. As we look toward the confirmation of their faith… and our reaffirmation of our faith, I want us to take a few minutes to look at our unity in Christ.

For those that have been here in the sanctuary for the past couple of weeks we have been looking at the Resurrecting Hope of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We have looked at the fact that Jesus shows up when we are in distress, like Mary at the tomb of Jesus… His life gave her a new hope and it give us hope.

We have looked at the fact that Jesus shows up when we feel like a failure, when we are disappointed in our selves – like with Peter at the lake shore. Peter was restored after his denial by the love of Jesus. Jesus grace overcame his failings.

Last week, we looked at the fact that Jesus brings dead things back to life as he did with Lazarus, finishing with a reminder that God is still in the miracle business.

This week, we will wrap up our series, looking at Jesus final prayer for his disciples and for us before he is arrested, tried, and crucified.

I have been privileged to have many conversations with people as they near the end of their life. You know, I’ve never heard anyone say, “I really wish I had bought that new car.” Or “I really should have watched that game I missed.” Instead, they share about the times they spent with family… they talk about restoring relationships and wishing they had taken the opportunity to spend more time with loved ones talking about the things that really matter.

When time is limited, people speak from the heart. It is these final words that we really should pay attention to because they are the things that are most important to that individual.

Jesus did just that. Turn with me in your Bibles to John 17.

In the final hours before Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, he gathered with his disciples for the Passover meal, commemorating the time in history when God rescued His people out of slavery in Egypt. As they share this meal together, Jesus gives them an example of how to serve one another by washing their feet, and then he shared this prayer for them.

He begins praying about his ministry up to that point and what was about to come. He prays for his disciples, his friends. Then, he concludes the prayer with these words for you and me.

READ John 17:20-26

What is so unique about this prayer is that it is for his closest followers – the Disciples, but it is also those who will believe. That is you and me! Jesus prays that you and I will find unity in Him.

That’s my first point for you, my confirmands…

THE LOVE OF GOD UNITES US ALL

At school, you see the division don’t you. There is this group and that group… there’s the jocks and the nerds, there’s the Band Geeks and the Choir Geeks… and don’t leave the Theatre geeks out.

Beyond school we are divided. We adults divide on theological lines, political lines, social lines… if there is anything we can use to divide us, we will use it.

And yet, John 3:16-17 reminds us that God loved us, you and me, the world, so much that He would send his son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved. That is what God’s love looks like! There is nowhere we can go where we are out of God’s love.

In the late pastor A.W. Tozer’s book The Pursuit of God, he writes;

“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So, one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

What a powerful view of what unity looks like. Unity does not mean uniformity. If I grabbed all the Pianos in this church, brought them in here, tuned them all to the same tuning fork, they will still look different. They will have a different tone. They will have a different feel. They will all be unique, but they will be tuned in unison. They are united, not uniform.

I once heard it said that “Unity without diversity is conformity.” We don’t want conformity. We are warned against conforming to the world. Hear me carefully… There is a standard by which we measure what it means to be a follower of Christ. That standard is clarified here in Scripture. Jesus Christ, his teachings, and the teachings of his closest followers sets that standard. When we are united in Christ, we hold to that standard. John Wesley once Quoted Augustine of Hippo by saying, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” Even when we don’t agree, we love. BUT… We do not conform to this world, instead, Paul tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds in Christ Jesus.

The resurrection hope of Jesus Christ is not dependent on all of us conforming. Instead, like white keys and black keys tuned to different notes, we work in concert with one another because of one unifying factor, the tuning fork.

The Gospel is about tuning ourselves to Christ and therefore all Christians tuned in unity!

Unfortunately, we as Christians across denominations and across the nations have too often tuned ourselves to some form of religion instead of tuning ourselves to Christ. When we do this, we are in disharmony, we are a cacophony.

BUT

If we tuned ourselves to Christ… if we allowed Christ to live and breathe in us and through us… united in his Love, instead of a cacophony of noise, we could become a orchestra for Christ to the world. Rejoice in our differences - but unite in Christ.

I think this was so important, that Jesus would want us to strive for Unity.

STRIVE FOR UNITY

It’s sad to read Jesus’ final prayer, what He cared about most – and then think about the current state of His Church. We focus more on our differences than what we have in common.

Living the Resurrection Life – living the Gospel – loving the Lord you God with all heart, soul, mind, and strength isn’t easy.

People let us down, they hurt us, they disappoint us… but as Christians we must strive to live in unity with one another.

Paul talks about this too. Flip over to Ephesians 4 – yes, my favorite chapter in the Bible when it comes to how we are to live in this world. Paul shares these words to the people of Ephesus…

Ephesians 4:1-6

In verse 3, Paul tells us to do everything we can to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

How do we do this? How do we do this… oh yes, verse 2…

That’s the how, but what about the why? Why do we do this? Verse 4-5.

Listen, we have been through a lot here at First Methodist. Beyond COVID, Disaffiliation, Affiliation, and all that stuff… some of us have dealt with the loss of loved ones. Some of us have lost friends, seen people move away. While we are so excited about Shaefer arriving next week, and we celebrate what Joey is doing, we grieve that he isn’t here.

We are in transition – a season of change, but here is one truth.

God is with us.

Christ is with us.

As long as we remain united in Christ, we will be stronger on the other side.

Through Christ, we are unified when everything else tries to tear us down.

And that leads to my final point… a previous point we made here at this church…

WE CAN DO MORE TOGETHER

Here’s a hard truth for today. Ladies, you ready for a hard truth…

Jesus doesn’t need us to rescue the world.

That’s the truth people. God’s mission for the world could have been accomplished by Jesus alone… and yet, God invites we sinful people to join Jesus in the rescue plan for the world.

We are invited into the Gospel, we are invited into the good news, that God loved the world so much that he was willing to bring heaven to earth.

Now, we are part of God’s plan… we are one body united in Christ…. And we can certainly do more together than we can apart.

Ryann, you and those in last weeks lesson heard a little more about this… but let me share it with the rest of the church.

A common image that is used in the scriptures to describe what unity in Christ looks like is the human body. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians and again here in Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4:15-16

Paul compares the Church, you and me to a body with many parts. You are a hand… you are an ear… you are a mouth… you are a foot… you are a thigh… you are a nose… apart from the body, you can’t do much… but together, look at all that a body can do!

You and I are the body… and it doesn’t stop with us. In this community, maybe we make up the Right leg, coming together as toes, ankles, knees, tibia and fibia, and calf and thigh, and femur… we are the right leg assembly, and maybe Coggin is the Left Leg assembly, and Central United Methodist is a hand, and First Church of the Nazarene is the other hand… the catholic Church is the torso… I could go through every church in town, but you get the point. Together we make up the body of Christ – but always united by the head, united by Christ!

So, what is my point ladies? Today, you are making the decision to be a part of the Body of Christ, to be united in Christ. Yes, you are saying you want to be a part of First Methodist Church, and a part of the Global Methodist Church… but more than that, you are saying that you are a part of the body of Christ, united in God’s love for you and me.

Put your faith in Christ – first time or tenth time or hundredth time.

Confirmation Slide