Disciples: We are a new body
Discipleship It's for me and for you • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 1:00:37
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Unity of believers
Unity of believers
I think by now you have gotten the idea that discipleship includes the unity of the believers. Our message tonight will continue on that path of unity, in our oneness in Christ and in the Father.
(insert Unity of Believers-1 picture Here)
Unity of believers through need of one another (Ecc4:9-12)
Unity of believers through sound doctrine (Tit2:1-9)
Unity of believers through diversity of gifts (1Cor12:20-31)
Unity of believers through common beliefs (Eph4:1-7)
A couple of weeks ago I did message on what all Christians, all disciples have in common and we are unified locally and universally by those things.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
The task, the assignment tonight is to look at the unity of believers, the disciples as one body in Christ and with the Father. It was Gods plan displayed and explained through Jesus in our passage and we are the fulfillment of it today when we are disciples of Jesus Christ.
As I was studying for this lesson tonight I needed to step back and look at the bigger picture of the context of Jesus prayer so I am expanding beyond the scope assigned of Jn17:20-23 and going to go through (v.26).
So, I want to present in a teaching format not a preaching format tonight so let’s all get involved as disciples tonight!
Here is what we want to look at:
The text and gleaning from it (Jn17:20-26)
Jesus prayer for the future believers (Jn17:20-23)
Unity with the Son and the Father (Jn17:24)
Jesus report to the Father (Jn17:25-26)
The Text
The Text
Simply Christians studying God’s Word and living it, right? So may we take a few minutes this evening and glean from the text itself then look at application regarding unity and a report to the Father.
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even 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 sent Me.
22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
This is a part of a bigger prayer that Jesus started in 17:1.
Jesus prays for Himself (vv.1-5)
Jesus prays for His Disciples (vv.6-19)
Our Text Jesus prays for future believers (vv.20-23)
Jesus praises and reports to the Father (vv.24-26)
Gleaning from the scripture:
Question: Whom is Jesus praying for in (v.20)?
He is praying for those who would believe through the word of the Apostles
Wait I better back up some for it says “their word” but now look back and see what that word is.
17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18 “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
19 “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
The word is the Word, it is the scripture, it is the truth, it is the written word and it is Jesus since He is truth.
Question: Who are the these and those in (v.20)?
The these are the apostles, the those are future believers who believe on the words of the Apostles
Question: Now look at (v.21) who is the “they” and who are the “Us”?
They has to be the future believers, and the Us has to be Father, and Jesus
Question: Why does Jesus pray for this according to (v.21)?
So that the world may believe the Father sent Jesus.
Question: What is the unity that is perfected in (vv.22-23)?
This question is so important that we come to grips with it, I want to make sure you get the answer and that you get it too!
It is the glory of the Father and the Son that is in the disciples and for the future believers!
Question: What is Jesus desire for them (disciples, future believers) to see according to (v.24)?
To see My glory
Question: Jesus prays one other desire in (vv.25-26), what is it?
That the love of the Father which was in the Son may be in them (Apostles, future believers).
(Transition) So we have pulled from the scripture directly (for the most part) now may we press on and look more at the prayer for future believers.
Jesus prays for future believers
Jesus prays for future believers
Jesus looked to the future and saw the cross. Jesus looked to the future and saw Pentecost. Jesus looked to the future beyond the apostles. Jesus looked to the future and saw YOU! May we look back and look at this more as Jesus prays for the church.
20 “I pray for these followers, but I am also praying for all those who will believe in me because of their teaching.
As I may have mentioned before Jesus prayer is for the future believers beyond the apostles.
This prayer is inclusive of “all believers”
This is a unity text that removes division within the church, since we are one new body in Christ Jesus, one church.
Question: What is the thing that brings unity to “all believers” according to (v.20)?
The Word, the teaching of the apostles.
Jesus words were for more than just the apostles they were to have bigger impact.
3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,
Question: According to (Heb2:3) there is a progression that happens, can you see it?
The words of the Lord, the words of the apostles who heard the word, and the “we” which were believers who believed the apostles words.
Previously Jesus had prayed for the security of the church, and the sanctity of the church, now it is for the unity through the Word.
Christians may belong to different fellowships, places of worship, but we are part of one body under one Lord, one Spirit, One God, oh, wait that was a previous lesson a couple of weeks ago from Eph4:1-7.
The disciples had often had issues with division due to selfishness, competition imagine what He see’s and feels today when He sees such division because we are forgetting we are one body and are compromising the Truth, trading the truth for things that are not true.
Basis of true unity, Christian unity, unity of the church is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ and for His glory (Jn17:2-5)
2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
4 “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
I will come back, circle around to the glory part here in a few minutes. Can we agree that church unity comes from the unity of believers in Jesus Christ? We belong to Him and that in Him we belong to one another too.
21 Father, I pray that they can be one. As you are in me and I am in you, I pray that they can also be one in us. Then the world will believe that you sent me.
Jesus appeal, prayer in (Jn17:21) is that the believers may be one.
One with each other, one with the Father and the Son.
Jesus says the results would be that the world would believe that the Father sent Him.
A couple of points to pull out
The basis: United through relationship with Jesus Christ, united in Spirit and Truth, united as one church.
Purpose: That the church (believers) be one, united.
(Transition) I mentioned circling back to the glory right? Well time to circle back as we look forward in the passage too.
22 I have given these people the glory that you gave me so that they can be one, just as you and I are one. 23 I will be in them and you will be in me so that they will be completely one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you loved them just as much as you loved me.
Glory to the future believers is the glory of the Father given to the Son.
The glory is the Father in the Son and the Son in the believers that makes them as one, one new body, united in faith.
Glory which is the Fathers love that is in the believer.
Commentator Bryant Krause said:
“A powerful attraction to a world starved for love is the Fathers love in the believer”
All believers have God’s glory living in them regardless of what they look like on the outside or where they have come from. Christian unity, harmony, comes based on the truth, on the internal not the external. It comes in the Spirit of truth.
His glory in us today and one day we will see His glory in heaven
24 “Father, I want these people that you gave me to be with me where I am. I want them to see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the world was made.
Consider this, as we continue to seek Him, through His word, as we continue to seek Him through prayer and supplication, we grow in our wisdom (that comes from above) and we start to comprehend more of His love, in us.
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
God’s love made a new body, God’s love unites us as one body, and it is God’s love that dwells in us that is a light in the darkness around us, to a lost world.
Warren Wiersbe said:
“The lost world cannot see God, but they can see Christians; and what they see in us is what they will believe about God.”
Some application (Things to remember):
(expand on each of the below, slow down take your time for this is what makes us one body, a new body, the church!)
We believe, trust the same Savior
We share the same glory
One day we will be joined together in the same heaven
And we all belong to the same Father
We all have the same work, and believe the same truth.
Jesus reports to the Father
Jesus reports to the Father
Unified by our love. Unified by the Fathers love made known through the Son. Not only known but received in them from the Son because of the love of the Father.
25 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Declaration: Jesus states the Father is righteous, other versions say good.
Declaration the world may not know the Father but we as believers know the Father because of Jesus
Declaration: truth and love are made known to the church
Truth and love must go together
15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,
According to (Eph4:15) why must truth and love go together?
So we are to grow up in all aspects
It has been said that “truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy.” We grow when we take in the truth of His Word, we grow in mind, we grow in spirit, we grow in truth, we grow in love.
A review before closing
In Jesus prayer for the future believers we can see
The Saviors heart
The Fathers glory
The call for the sanctity of God’s people to be united.
The unity of the believers
The ministry to the lost world.
Thank you Lord for this prayer offered up for the future believers in which we are part of and are sharing for others to be believers.
(Invitation/encouragement slide- fulfill the great commission)
(song) (prayer) (close)