A Shift to Unity (John 17:1-8)

Sermon

Key Passage

John 17:1–8 NIV

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

Introduction

Good morning, today will conclude the short series that we have used to bridge the gap between our last series about the Sermon on the Mount, and our next journey through the Book of Matthew.

I want to impress upon all of us the reason for the series we just completed.

If you remember, when we began this series, there was heightened tension and emotion within our culture.

Charlie Kirk had just been killed. The mourning of people within our nation and churches were felt in a heavy way.

Also, the political tensions within our nation began to peak alongside of this murder.

People came to church looking for comfort and purpose.

We recognized that this world is a broken and hurting place. But we were also reminded that this world is an evil world.

What we chose to do was present a clear picture of what the church ought to be in our culture.

Over the last 1 1/2 months, I have not created any new content or presented a new plan for us to engage the world.

I have simply laid out the core foundations of our church here at Real Life Selkirk.

It is my belief that we as the church need to stop trying to make new plans and strategies, and start simply living out who God called us to be.

We need to set our eyes on Jesus, not the world.

Salvation and hope come from Him, not from fixing the world.

I want to recap what we have covered and how it fits together today as we talk about alignment and unity.

We are all called to be disciples of Jesus

We began by looking at Jesus call to Peter and John on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus said: Matthew 4:19

Matthew 4:19 ESV

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

It is interesting, because this was the only call. They knew what Jesus’ call meant.

It was putting Jesus above all of the other callings of their lives.

They had to leave their nets to follow Jesus.

It is also interesting that this is the only call Jesus gave to anyone.

He never said, “Come to my church” or “Join my religion”

He only called people to discipleship, then when He left, He told His disciples to go make more disciples.

It was only after a few years that the word “Christian” even showed up.

And the context of that was that the disciples of Jesus were preaching and living the Gospel about Jesus.

There is only one call. That is the call to be a disciple of Jesus

Because of this, we feel it is our role as a church and as a leadership to make this journey of discipleship the mission of our church in every capacity.

We have presented five key elements of what it means to be a church that makes disciples like Jesus made disciples.

5 Key Elements of a Disciple Making Church:

Biblical Foundation

Jesus said, “Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you”

A Biblical foundation is the bedrock of truth that points all of us to Jesus.

You cannot be a disciple of Jesus if you do not build your life on the foundation of His Word

5 Key Elements of a Disciple Making Church:

Biblical Foundation

Relational Environment

Jesus presented the Word of God. He lived the Word of God. He literally WAS the Word of God.

But Jesus didn’t come to write theology textbooks and teach seminars of higher learning.

God created us to be relational beings.

We were created for relationship with God AND we were created for relationship with one another.

We cannot hold to one and avoid the other.

As we said, the first commandment Jesus preached was “Love the Lord your God”

the second is like it, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.

The second commandment is not secondary. It is just second. Equal in authority.

Jesus loved His disciples. He was relational with them.

In our church, we want to be Biblical, and relational.

We strive to create environments where life is displayed and we grow as God created us to grow, with a foundation on the truth.

5 Key Elements of a Disciple Making Church:

Biblical Foundation

Relational Environment

Intentional Leadership

I want you to hear this. As a church leadership, we strive to develop and equip leaders so the Body of Christ may be built up in maturity.

But what we talked about in this sermon was being an intentional follower.

Being an intentional follower means you seek out people with whom you can grow. You understand that discipleship is a journey that leads to maturity.

Maturity is a pruning process in our lives.

As we mature, we must do so with the truth of the Word of God (Biblical Foundation, alongside of one another (Relational Environment), and with a more mature person who is showing us what it looks like to follow Jesus (An Intentional Leader).

Jesus modeled intentional leadership with His disciples.

He wasn’t haphazard or accidental.

He was intentional in what He did.

So when it was time to send them away, the disciples knew what they needed to know.

5 Key Elements of a Disciple Making Church:

Biblical Foundation

Relational Environment

Intentional Leadership

Reproducible Process

A part of Jesus’ intentional leadership was showing them that the path to maturity was not a straight line.

He walked through life with them

We showed the following diagram:

SHOW DIAGRAM FROM PREVIOUS WEEK

In this, we have spoken that as a church, we cannot separate the MESSAGE of Jesus from the METHOD of Jesus.

Being able to pass on what was given to us in a way that the next generation of disciples can pass it on to their next generation is how the truth of the Gospel can become a legacy of discipleship.

Today, we talk about the fifth and final bullet point

5 Key Elements of a Disciple Making Church:

Biblical Foundation

Relational Environment

Intentional Leadership

Reproducible Process

Alignment

Preaching

As we look at the topic of alignment, what I want to do is talk about what alignment is and what alignment is not.

Alignment and unity are very closely connected.

Alignment is not making sure everyone is identical to each other.

We don’t seek conformity we seek unity

Alignment is not something all of its own.

We can’t be aligned over alignment. Alignment implies that there are core elements of direction that we are moving to the same target.

Alignment is not necessarily peace.

Alignment implies that things can be mis-aligned.

Alignment requires growth, correction, grace and mercy.

All of these are difficult in real life.

Jesus’ Method Revealed:

As we navigate this, I want to highlight everything that we have spoken about today in Jesus’ words.

The evening before Jesus went to the cross, He prayed to the Father in front of His disciples.

How do I know it was in front of His disciples? It is recorded by John.

John 17:1–4 NIV

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.

I want to pause here.

Jesus said that He had brought glory on earth to the Father by finishing the work God had given Him to do.

We might ask, “What was the work that God gave Jesus to do?”

The quick, Sunday School answer would be, “Jesus came to die on the cross for our sins.”

Jesus DID come to die on the cross for our sins.

But when Jesus prayed before going to the cross, He said, “I have completed the work you gave me to do.”

He hadn’t been in front of Herod or Pilate.

He hadn’t been whipped

He didn’t have a crown of thorns on His head

He hadn’t been crucified or killed.

None of these things had been completed yet.

So when Jesus went to the Father BEFORE His crucifixion in prayer and said, “I have completed the work you gave me to do, we must ask the question, “What was the work?”

Jesus continues into His prayer by saying:

John 17:6 NIV

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.

Jesus is saying that He completed the work that God the Father gave Him to do in this world. Then, described what that work was by defining HOW He completed what God gave Him to complete.

He revealed the Father to those God had given Him out of the world.

Who had God given Jesus out of the world?

You can read, the next few verses, but it was very clear that Jesus is talking about His disciples.

I want you to think about this:

Jesus came to BE the sacrifice for sin.

Jesus came to MAKE disciples

The love of the Father is demonstrated in both

When we talk about discipleship, we don’t believe we are talking about a trendy new method of church, or programming.

This was the mission that God gave Jesus.

Then Jesus sent the disciples out to do the same thing.

That is why Jesus said, Matthew 28:18-19

Matthew 28:18–19 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

When Jesus sent them out with all authority, it was because He was sent with all authority by God the Father to do the same thing.

In Jesus prayer, He was very intentional about saying what He did and what He expected for His disciples.

I want to walk through the rest of this prayer and listen to what Jesus intentionally said and did for His disciples.

John 17:7–8 NIV

Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

As we look at this, the first thing that we see is that Jesus built His relationship and purpose of the disciples on the truth.

This is what we would consider a Biblical Foundation.

If Jesus’ first job with the disciples was communicating the words of God to the disciples to reveal the heart and the nature of God, then what should be our first and foundational step?

The same.

As we have said before, “You cannot be a Biblical disciple if you do not have a Biblical foundation.”

John 17:9–17 NIV

I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

As I talk through this, it is a powerful passage about what Jesus felt and saw in His disciples.

What I see is that Jesus was recognizing the battle that they were about to face.

They had grown in maturity to this point and they were ready to be sent.

They knew the Father. As we will see (and have seen), they had relationship with one another, there had to be some intentional leadership by Jesus to prepare them and go to the Father on their behalf.

Jesus knew what was coming for them and He intentionally challenged them, grew them and prayed for them as He released them.

They were never meant to be solely dependent on Jesus.

They were meant to depend on Jesus and be released to make disciples.

John 17:18–20 NIV

As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,

Jesus didn’t just give them a Biblical foundation and intentionally lead them.

He created a reproducible process by which they would be able to go and make more disciples.

This is seen in this passage: Jesus was going away and He knew that they would go and do what He did with them to others.

The expectation was that these disciples would be released to go make more disciples.

Jesus said, “As you sent me into the world...”

The way, function and truth that Jesus was sent to make disciples

“I have sent them into the world”

Was the way that Jesus sent the disciples in the world.

This was intentional, but it was also reproducible.

Jesus spent the time with them to show them what they needed to do.

In our world, we talk about discipleship, but it is often not reproducible.

We don’t learn what we are to do to go make disciples and if we do learn, it is often done through some refined process or program or ministry.

We need to look at Jesus and model what we do after Him.

We even see that Jesus, the perfect disciple-maker lost one. Success is not how we determine if we are winning. Obedience determines if we are winning.

John 17:21–23 NIV

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.

In love God sent Jesus. In love, Jesus sends us.

Do you see that this process of discipleship is a process of relationship.

This is done to experience the love of God, but also to give the love of God to the world around us.

Discipleship is the relational environment by which we experience the love of God through His church.

Lastly, I want you to see the Power of Alignment

John 17:22–23 NIV

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.

Discipleship is the tool that Jesus gave the disciples to reach the lost.

At Real Life Selkirk, our vision as a church is:

Real Life Selkirk Vision:

We exist to reach the world for Jesus, one person at a time...

How do we do that? How can we win the world for Jesus?

Real Life Selkirk Mission:

...by creating Biblical Disciples in Relational Environments

We believe this is the Biblical calling for our church to follow.

We believe that this is the gameplan God gives His church.

We don’t impact the world through changing policy, changing culture, or changing minds.

We change the world by showing the love of God through a relational journey built upon the truth called discipleship.

Conclusion

Jason, Christian and I were just at a conference and one of the speakers there said that we live in an era that he called “The end of dialog”

When I began this job, one of the most effective tools at my disposal for making an effective case for Jesus was apologetics.

I still love apologetics and I love that we can stand on the verifiable truth for what we believe.

But the world around us doesn’t want to hear the truth.

The world around us just wants to hear what will reinforce what they already believe.

They don’t want to dialog. If you were to bring actual evidence and truth to them, they wouldn’t believe it. They would just dismiss it or ignore it.

We see it in our world every day.

We have largely seen the end of dialog and evidence as a source for convincing people of the truth of the Gospel.

We can shake our heads and say, “Look at what the world has come to. We need to change their view so our tools can be effective.”

If this is our view, we’ll never be a church that changes the world.

Jesus changed the world through communicating truth in love.

The world may have rejected dialog, but they haven’t rejected the fingerprint of God within us to be loved, heard and respected.

Can we as a church engage the lost with love? With grace? With relationship?

As we build trust, as we learn to listen, as we recognize that our battle is not against them, but it is for them can we follow Jesus example and engage the world with love?

Jesus did this to a significant success.

I’m not saying we abandon truth.

But the world doesn’t care about the truth, until they find how much we care.

Only then will we earn the right to share the truth and allow God to work in and change their hearts.

Gospel Presentation

Communion