A word form Rev. Phillip Powell and Unity is Essential for Pure Witness
Notes
Transcript
Unity is Essential for Pure Witness
Unity is Essential for Pure Witness
Jesus Prays for You and Me
Jesus Prays for You and Me
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
Jesus Prays for You and Me
Jesus Prays for You and Me
The first part of his prayer was for the people in the room
Teaching us how to live as sojourners
This last part is specific for all disciples
Jesus was encouraging the Apostles to keep sharing the word
Unless you are Lazarus and won’t die again until Jesus returns,
Jesus prays for us, as believers because of other witnesses
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Distance cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
When we believe, we are in this prayer of Jesus
Jesus Prays That We Be One
Jesus Prays That We Be One
that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
Jesus Prays That We Be One
Jesus Prays That We Be One
He prays that we would be in Him to experience true unity
Our unity must come from our identity: In Christ
It has to be from inside of Christ Jesus
We don’t do well outside of him.
We must be bound by the three-strand cord of We in Christ, Christ in the Father, the Father in Christ.
Our new reality is, we are one in Christ and God!
We are part of God’s recipe for witness in the world
Only through our essential unity will the world believe in Jesus
The opposite: When we aren’t in unity, the witness of Jesus is distorted
The Gift of Christ’s Glory Becomes Our Unity
The Gift of Christ’s Glory Becomes Our Unity
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
The Gift of Christ’s Glory Becomes Our Unity
The Gift of Christ’s Glory Becomes Our Unity
The Gift helps us know the unity of the Godhead
Promise Keepers policy position on racial reconciliation:
Promise Keepers policy position on racial reconciliation:
John: Verse by Verse Prayer for Unity (17:20–23)
The unity of the church on earth is a reflection of and witness to the unity of the Godhead in heaven, and the very mission of the church is at stake. The unity of the church is not an option but a mandate, and a fractured church (so often the case) is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord.
We cannot truly reflect God unless we can do it In Christ Together
A Perfect Unity for Witness and Testimony
A Perfect Unity for Witness and Testimony
I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
A Perfect Unity for Witness and Testimony
A Perfect Unity for Witness and Testimony
The Believer is meant to experience Christ’s indwelling presence
The Father in already in Christ
When Christ is in us, so is the Father
The unity of all believers is a reality
We need to live in that unity as we share the Love of Jesus
The rest of humanity will see our unity and can believe
The rest of humanity will know the Love of God that sent Jesus
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
The Goal of Love is God’s Presence
The Goal of Love is God’s Presence
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
The Goal of Love is God’s Presence
The Goal of Love is God’s Presence
The Reason is Relationship
Bound up in God’s love for all of humanity
Jesus wants us to be with him
To see the wonders of glory
To experience the absolute and incredible love of God with him
We Can Know the Father’s Heart
We Can Know the Father’s Heart
O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
We Can Know the Father’s Heart
We Can Know the Father’s Heart
Not by Thinking
Not by Doing
Not through Theology
Not through Philosophy
Only through Jesus can we know the Father’s heart
Only through Jesus can we know the wonders of His Name
Only through Jesus will the Love the Father be discovered in us
So What Are We to Do?
So What Are We to Do?