Indispensable Faith

These few verses from John 17 give us a glimpse into a Trinitarian conversation. This is a prayer between Jesus (the Son) and the heavenly Father. There are not many examples in the Bible in which we get to peek through and see exactly what is going on between the persons of our triune God. But here is one of them. In John 17 Jesus offers a prayer to the Father that has three sections. In the first section, Jesus prays for himself. After all, this takes place right before his betrayal and execution. He knows what he is about to face. The second section is a prayer specifically for his disciples. Jesus also knows full well what the next three days will do to this group of followers who have devoted the past several years of their lives to follow Jesus. The third—and final—section of the prayer is what we are going to look at today. This is the prayer that Jesus offers to the Father for all the believers who will follow. This is a prayer for the church yet to come. This is a prayer for the church all the way down through the century to today. This is a prayer for us. These are words that Jesus offers to the heavenly Father for you and for me here today in this place. We are glimpsing here into the heart of God to witness his desire for the church even now.

John 17:20–26 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. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

One feature about this passage I want to point out before moving on. The Greek word hina expresses purpose, or result. Often in English it is translated as the phrase “so that” or simply “in order that.” For example, I may tell my children something like, eat all your vegetables so that you can have dessert. Or, study for your exams in order that you can get a good grade. These are statements that express a specific purpose or a result. If you eat all your vegetables, the result will be that you get dessert. You study for exams for the purpose of getting a good grade. It answers the question why. This is why you should eat your vegetables. This is why you should study for exams. That’s idea behind the Greek word hina. It answers why. It gives purpose. It provides the result.

In the seven short verses we see here, Jesus uses the word hina nine times. It does not come across cleanly that way in the English. So it’s not worth us spending time right here identifying where each of these phrases exists in the passage. That’s not the point. The point is that these are seven short verses that are loaded with purpose—with result. These few verses express an enormous amount of ‘the reason why’ Jesus is praying for the church. Jesus lays out all the cards and shows for us what he fully expects the result of this prayer to be.

Faith to Faithfulness

This is the second message in our ‘Indispensable’ series. Last week we began by talking about indispensable love. We saw in that passage of scripture from 1 Corinthians 13 that the apostle Paul identifies three specific qualities of Christian virtue that stand the test of time and remain for all of us as indispensable qualities yet today. Faith, hope, and love. We already talked last week about love. Today, let’s take this prayer of Jesus from John 17 and consider how this ‘purpose’ and ‘result’ oriented prayer speaks to us about the indispensable quality of faith.

Jesus talks in this prayer about the necessity for an unshakable unity among his followers. Often in the church when we think about and talk about faith, it seems we are rather specific to think about faith as a full acceptance and belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus for our salvation. Remember that Jesus prays this prayer right before he is about to be arrested and sentenced to death on a cross. But also note how intensely Jesus is praying that the purpose and result that Jesus intends for the church does not focus on some kind of eternal heavenly afterlife. Rather, Jesus takes this opportunity of prayer to focus his attention on the purpose and result of unity among believers in the church.

Let’s connect some dots here. The author of the book of Hebrews defines faith for us in the church. He says in Hebrews 11 that “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Faith is about living in such a way that you believe in something so strongly that you continue to lean and press into that belief even when circumstances around you make that difficult. Faith is about living in the certainty of what you believe even when circumstances about you might otherwise pull such a certainty into question—but you continue to live into that certainty anyway.

This is why our idea of faith and faithfulness are so closely tied together. Faithfulness is about remaining steadfast and unshakable in the beliefs that we hold. Faithfulness is a quality that often we attribute to a strong and lasting marriage relationship; that when couples are married they make promises to remain faithful to one another. This kind of faithfulness takes shape in the marriage as a belief to remain committed to the relationship and to one another no matter what circumstances come along that might question or suggest otherwise. When the relationship suffers and struggles, but the couple remains unshakenly committed together, that’s faithfulness. Faith and faithfulness don’t just show up in the good and easy times. Rather, the indispensable quality of faith and faithfulness show up ESPECIALLY in the difficult times—in times when all evidence around them might seem to suggest the contrary. That’s where faith and faithfulness pull through and become such an important indispensable quality.

This prayer of Jesus in John 17 weaves so heavily into this kind of faithfulness. Jesus is praying for unity in the church. Let’s be honest, sometimes our unity together seems to come naturally and doesn’t seem to take much effort. And other times our commitment towards one another as the bride of Christ takes a whole lot of work. In fact, sometimes it seems as though churches argue and fight and split all the time. Faithfulness takes work. But the point of our faith is that we believe and cling so very tightly to the promises of God, that we refuse to let go. We continue to believe together that God’s establishment of his church in this world is worth holding on to and worth our commitment, even when circumstances around us might seem to suggest otherwise. In fact, all the more so especially when circumstances around us suggest otherwise.

The Gift of Glory

There’s another detail in this passage that shows us how Jesus intends for the unity of his church to be founded on indispensable faithfulness. It has to do with the gift of glory. In verse 21 Jesus says that he has given to the church the glory that the Father had given to Jesus. Further down in verse 24 Jesus says that he wants his followers to see and recognize that glory.

Glory is an important part of understanding the role of faith and faithfulness in the church. Glory has more to do with this than you might think.

The Old Testament Hebrew word for glory is the word kavoed. It is a word to describe the glory of god. And it is a word that carries some nuances that we lose in English. We might think of glory strictly as fame, or positive recognition, or enduring legacy. For example, the 2014-2015 NFL season was glorious for the Denver Broncos. That was the year they won super bowl 50. The broncos took home the glory that year. By ‘glory’ we mean that season carries great recognition, that it has an enduring legacy. I’m not sure there will be any enduring legacies for the Broncos this year. There’s not much glory going on for them now.

The Hebrew word kavoed—which we also translate as glory—comes from the same root in Hebrew as the word for heavy, or weight. Don’t think about just a little bit heavy. We’re talking here about enormous weight. This isn’t heavy like a big rock. This isn’t even heavy like a giant boulder. Kavoed is heavy like an entire mountain. It’s not heavy like a big bucket filled with water. It’s not heavy like a pond or lake. It’s heavy like an ocean. The point is this, kavoed is so heavy that you cannot move it. It is so heavy that you cannot go around it. It is so massive that you cannot ignore it. It is such an overwhelming presence that you must acknowledge the full impact of its reality. That’s biblical glory. That is what the glory of God is all about. His presence and impact upon this world is so massive, it is so overwhelming, that you cannot ignore it. You cannot go around it. You cannot get away from it. You cannot move it.

That is the glory of God that came to earth in Christ Jesus. And it is this glory that Jesus prays here that he is giving to the church. This glory given to the church is given for a purpose. It is intended to have a specific result. What does Jesus say about that? It is given for the purpose of unity with God and with one another. And this is a unity that carries glory. This is a unity that is heavy. This is a unity that holds weight. God intends for the church to be a place that overflows with his glory. Jesus provided salvation for our lives with a result that his church would be an overwhelming, massive presence into this world. With the gift of his glory, Jesus gives a purpose to the church that God would use this place to be a powerful force in this world that cannot be pushed aside, that cannot be ignored. That’s glory.

Indispensable Faith - Indispensable Unity

And all of this comes together for us today in the quality of indispensable faith. It is a faith that is indispensable because it is not meant to be only for some people. It is not meant to be only for certain times and places. It is a faith that is indispensable because it is given for all people in all cultures throughout the world through all the ages of the church. It is for all God’s people.

James declares in this New Testament letter that faith without works is dead. The indispensable faithfulness that God has for his church is a faithfulness that shows up in actions. And the indispensable faithfulness that is placed upon the church is a faithfulness that must also show up in our lives as action. It is a faith that must take shape. It is a faith that takes shape in who we are and in how we live.

Listen to what Jesus has to say about that for us today. Jesus does not focus the attention of his prayer that we might all be good people. He does not declare that this faithfulness shows up in our morality. He does not point towards faithfulness in doctrinal purity or correct teaching. No. Jesus very intentionally focuses the manifestation of our faith into one specific direction. Our faithfulness to Jesus shows up in our dedication to live in unity with one another here in the church. This is how faith shows up and takes action. This is what our faithfulness looks like.

This is a faithfulness that is indispensable for every single one of us. So, for every single one of us here today, our place of belonging in this fellowship of believers is not optional. It is not a place that is reserved only for some. It is a place of belonging for all of us. That’s what makes it indispensable. And this is exactly what makes our dedication to live in unity such an indispensable quality of our faith.

Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Sometimes our unity together as the church in this world can be difficult to see. But the indispensable nature of our faith means we press forward into this community of believers. It means we live together in bold assurance that Jesus himself is the key to our faith. And Jesus himself is the key to what holds us all together in unity.