High Priest's Prayer 3

Opening

Do you guys remember text on an old t9 style phone? Have to tap 44,33,55,55,666 just to write hello. What a time. Sure our phone battaries lasted days back then, but texting took so long. We would rather wait until 7:30 when the free call minutes we avaliable than sit there and type out whole words that way.

So what we did was we decided the way forward was acronyms. So we started typing LOL, OMW, brb . Milleninals would look at a string of letters like they were sherlock holmes solving a mystery. IYKYK, WYSIWYG. 2G2B4G.

There is another acronym that I learned about this week. I have known of the principle for some time, but I didn’t realize that it is spoken as an acronym. “POSIWID” It comes for the world of buisness. POSIWID stands for “the purpose of a system is what it does.”

This is one of those sayings that sound really simple, but are actually profound. POSIWID tells us that what ever system that is in place produces exactly what it is designed to produce.

Stafford Beer, British theorist, consultant, and professor at the Manchester Business School, coined and frequently used the phrase “The purpose of a system is what it does” (POSIWID) to explain that the observed purpose of a system is often at odds with the intentions of those who design, operate, and promote it....

https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminkomlos/2021/09/13/the-purpose-of-a-system-is-what-it-does-not-what-it-claims-to-do/

Transtion

POSIWID might sound like just another bit of alphabet soup, but the idea behind it is actually pretty powerful: the purpose of a system is what it does.

It’s a reality check, isn’t it? Because we might say a system is meant to do one thing, but if it consistently produces something else… maybe that’s its true purpose. And that doesn’t just apply to businesses or institutions—it applies to people too. To the Church. To us.

Jesus had a simpler way of saying it: “By their fruit, you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:20)

What you consistently produce, what grows out of your life—that’s the real reflection of your purpose. So what kind of fruit does the Church bear today? What do we produce? What does the world see when it looks at us? If the church isn’t producing what the founder, Jesus, told us it should produce, we need to assess the system. Because that system is producing something, and it is perfectly designed to do so.

Today, we continue listening in on Jesus’ prayer the night He was betrayed. And now He turns His attention—not just to His disciples—but to us. To every future believer who would come to trust Him through the message passed down. And what does He pray for?

Unity. A type of oneness so real, so radical, that it would convince the world that Jesus was truly sent by God.

Let’s listen to His words:

John 17:20–23 NIV

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Jesus prays for a new type of nation, a nation of people bound together by their belief in Jesus and the message his disiples give to them. That message is the gospel.

THE GOSPEL

The good news that unites these believers is paraphrased like this: We were created for deep connection—with God and each other. But when we chose our own way, those relationships broke down, and the world was marked by division and pain. Still, God didn’t walk away. He came to us, lived with compassion and truth, and in love, stepped into our brokenness to restore us.

Through Jesus, we’re brought back into relationship—with Him and one another. This restored connection forms a new kind of humanity—not bound by sameness, but by love. And when we live united in that love, the world sees what He’s like.

The challenge from the prayer that Jesus prays in John 17:20-23 is that this isn’t something that is really seen in todays world. What we need to ask is what in the POSIWID is going on? Depending on how you count there are roughly 45,000 different Christian denominations worldwide. That is so far a field from what Jesus proposed. Unity is a word to us almost like utopia. We have some strained ideal of what it is or what it looks like, but it is so out of our normal experience that it is hard to imagine.

Illustration

Why aren’t we unified? Do we believe that this kind of oneness can be attained? Maybe the more apt question is, do we really want what God wants? Do we want to come underneath his lordship? If we seek for our desires to be the same as God’s desires then we should be desiring unity and a deep oneness among one another. Not seeking all of the things that we disagree on. Not seeking disonance, but seeking harmony. I am not saying that unity means no disagreements, but I am saying that out of humility and out of God’s desire our target is harmony.

This guitar has 6 strings on it. This is tuned EADGBE. Each string has its own freqency. Every note on the guitar has notes that our ears like to hear together called Chords. (Play Chords) Some chords we are used to and the individual notes naturally resonate with one another. Some notes don’t sound so natural to us, it creates disonance. Like this (play crazy diamonds chord). it is harsh to the ears, we don’t like the relationship between these notes, its off putting.

What musicaians and artists do sometimes is try to make to disonances work. So say I take the same Chords (F and G) and then I do this same chord from before. (crazy diamonds) now it works. What David Gilmore did was bring out harmony from something that seemed disonant and un-unified. something that we couldn’t stand or listen to, is in the heart of a song that was released 50 years ago and just one version of it has 246 million listens.

Therefore, we as christian need to become artists in is how to make harmony. How to make peace with one another. Instead of dwelling in the disonance we need to seek how we can be unified. That Is Jesus’ prayer for us. Not that we would all be the same, but that we would find harmony with one another. That we would all be tuned to a common tone, named Jesus Christ.

Main Point

When our lives are tuned to God’s truth, our unity becomes a song the world can hear.

People look at the early part of Acts and see this church that is radically unified, they think to themselves that they wish they could live back then. I wish church was like that. So what we do is we try all these things in man’s wisdom. Lets hold a seminar, lets hold a conference and have everyone do a trust fall. Lets try this initiative. Lets borrow from over here and then steal this idea, and then lets make people think like this. We do just about everything but what the early church did. Then we take a look at our POSIWID and it isn’t lining up.

In Acts 2 the believers are gathered together in an upper room. Waiting and praying. Waiting and praying. waiting and praying.

Then God poured out the Holy Spirit on his new temple. Then the church began. It started with waiting and praying. It began by being still.

Thread

So many times we want the by-product but don’t want the process.

I have been to many prayer meetings where the main verse referenced is

2 Chronicles 7:14 “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

What I have noticed is that we like to focus on the middle chunk of this command (pray and seek my face) but the outer two we brush past. Humble themselves, and turn from wicked ways. We pass that one on to the people who aren’t at the prayer meeting. That is for them to do. That is for the people out there to do. “Y’all need Jesus” is the concept. This to me strikes right at the heart of the matter.

The heart of the matter is pride. Pride and arrogance play such a heavy role in the issue of disunity and division. Go with me for a moment.

So I think the reason we have a hard time with being one is we take upon ourselves more than we are supposed to have. Unity doesn’t come through a tower of bable. Men all agreeing on the same project, unity comes from God. Notice Jesus’ prayer

21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Jn 17:20–21.

Even Jesus trusted the unity of the body, the gathered, the church to God. It is in God’s hands.

Handle what you can handle. We far to often take ahold of things we aren’t meant to take a hold of. We like Adam and Eve want to be as God, we want to control the knowlege of Good and evil, instead of tending to the task God has for us we want to busy ourselves with frivaloties.

Instead of being humble and sitting at God’s feet we try to clean up all creation. We have pride that we have the corner on all the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help us God. So then anyone who doesn’t do the same is apostate.

MAIN POINT

When our lives are tuned to God’s truth, our unity becomes a song the world can hear.

The truth is what sets us free from the need to divide, the truth that we aren’t judge, juror, and executioner frees us from the need to do what we aren’t called to do.

The question to fight through is how does this really work? One of the cornerstones of the restoration movement, that WGCC finds its foundation in, a key motto is

In Essentials unity, in Non-essentials Liberty, In all things Charity

This motto speaks to what I am trying to say. I would encourage you to spend time and think about what exactly are the Essentials according to Jesus, what are the non-essentials we treat as essentials, and with both essentailas and non-essentials treating one another with love and charity?

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianty talks about the decision every Christian must make which is to make a decison on which denomination one should be a part of. He talks about it like it is a house with a long hallway. The hallway is the core beliefs that are the essentials. But he says each of us at one point must decide which room to make our own. Those rooms are the denominations. He says it better than I can:

And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and panelling. In plain language, the question should never be: 'Do I like that kind of service?' but 'Are these doctrines true: is holiness here? Does my conscience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper?'

When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if there are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.”

― C.S. Lewis

It is on God to sort this out, will you trust him to do that? How have you responded to Christ Jesus, and how has the person you are judging responded to Jesus?

In the middle of Psalm 115, the third psalm Jesus sang the night of the High Preist’s prayer we find these words.

Psalm 115:9–13 NIV

All you Israelites, trust in the Lord— he is their help and shield. House of Aaron, trust in the Lord— he is their help and shield. You who fear him, trust in the Lord— he is their help and shield. The Lord remembers us and will bless us: He will bless his people Israel, he will bless the house of Aaron, he will bless those who fear the Lord— small and great alike.

Do we trust in God to accomplish this unity? Do you believe that God will bless his people? Or do we feel like we need to pick up the slack of God? Do we fear the Lord, do we hold Him in reverance? Do we see that God’s ways are not our own, and that HE will accomplish this work, HE will answer Jesus’ prayer.

This Psalm is recalling a moment in the Exodus story. Moses and the israelites find themselves backed against a wall called the Red sea. On oneside is water, on the other is the Egyptians coming to get them. So the people are all afraid, fearing for their lives with no escape. They are trying to figure out how to solve this problem, but the problem is far to big for them to solve. It isn’t in their capabilities to take on Chariots and spears and swords. They can’t do it. Then in

Exodus 14:13–14 NIV

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

What I am talking about today isn’t a defeatist position. I am not telling you all to not be active, but it is also a lie to believe that being still and knowing that God is God is not inactivity. Mary and Martha from human eyes may look like Martha was the one doing the important stuff, but in reality the one doing the work of the father was Mary who sat at the feet of Jesus and abided among him. If we want unity it isn’t going to happen from human initiatives. There isn’t another meeting to hold. This unity is only acheivable in God’s Kingdom.

When I played the guitar earlier I played an F Chord, and a G Chord. The F Chord in it’s simpliest form is made up of the notes F, A and C. the F note isn’t trying to tell the C note to be an F. That isn’t it’s job. The F note is an F note it is up to the player to make the C and the F and the A work together. Quit trying to do God’s job.

Unity isn’t homogoney, it is harmony. Homogoney is everything all the same, instead it is working in harmony together, creating beautiful music.

MAIN POINT

When our lives are tuned to God’s truth, our unity becomes a song the world can hear.

If we are a part of a church body that isn’t doing what God asks of us, if we aren’t abiding with Him and he abiding with us. If the way we operate as a church together isn’t creating what God wants then we need to go back to The purpose of a system is what it does” (POSIWID) That is what repentance is for. We can turn back to God and see his face. We can be still and know that HE IS GOD, and WE ARE NOT.

APPLICATION

Spiritual Discipline Application: Practicing Silence and Stillness

If the kind of unity Jesus prayed for is a harmony only God can orchestrate… If it's not ours to force, but to participate in… Then the discipline that makes the most sense is not more noise. Not more talking. Not more doing.

It’s Silence and Stillness.

God’s instruction is simple: Don’t run. Don’t fight. Be still. Trust Me.

So here's the invitation: Before you try to fix anyone… Before you speak into what someone else should be doing… Before you try to bring unity by your own strength…

Be still. Be silent. Sit at the feet of Jesus like Mary did, and let Him tune your heart to His.

This week, I’m inviting you into a simple practice:

Ten minutes a day of silence and stillness before God.

No phone. No noise. Just you, and Him.

Sit with the question: “God, where do I need to trust you more than I trust myself?”

Sit with the prayer: “Jesus, make me an instrument of your harmony.”

Because unity doesn’t start in a boardroom or a conference or a program. It starts in a quiet room, with a surrendered heart.

Closing and Invitation

Jesus prayed for us to be one—not because we could accomplish it on our own—but because He knew we couldn’t. He prayed for our unity because He knew it would take nothing less than the presence and power of God.

And the invitation this morning is simple, but it’s not easy: Be still and Know.

So this altar is open.

If you want to kneel in repentance, come. If you want to stand in surrender, come. If you want to bring someone with you and ask for unity, come. If you need Jesus—if you want to give your life to Him for the first time—come.

We’ll pray with you. We’ll kneel with you. We’ll sit in silence if that’s what you need. But whatever you do, don’t walk away from this moment. The prayer Jesus prayed over you is still echoing through the heavens. And He’s still waiting for you to trust Him.