Church Unity
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· 18 viewsThe world will not hear the message of Christ until we speak as one, are one with Christ.
Notes
Transcript
Greeting!
Greeting!
Good Morning!
It is indeed an honor and a privilege to be able to speak to you and bring the Word of God to life today! It’s been about 3 years since my last time before you, and even then during a Lenten series on Wednesday evening. Certainly a lot has happened since then! Amen!
I. Icebreaker
The Bridge
I once heard a story about two brothers...
-who lived on adjoining farms
- For years, they had been sharing machinery, trading a labor and goods as needed without a hitch.
-fell into conflict.
- It began with a small misunderstanding, major difference, exchange of bitter words, weeks of silence.
- One morning there was a knock on elder brother’s door. Could I help you?”
- “Yes!” said the elder brother. “I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That’s my neighbor, in fact, it’s my younger brother and we don’t get along. Last week he dug a wider passage for water into his farm. But he ended up creating a very wide creek in between our farms and I am sure he did it just to annoy me. I want you to build me something so that we don’t have to stand and see each other’s face from across.”
The carpenter said “I think I understand the situation. I will be able to do a job that will please you.” The elder brother had to go to town for supplies, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day. The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing.
The elder brother’s eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped. It was not what he had even thought of or imagined. It was a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work, beautiful handrails.
And to his surprise, his younger brother across the creek was coming to meet him with a big smile and arms wide open to hug him.
“You are really kind and humble my brother! After all I had done and said to you, you still shown that blood relations can never be broken! I am truly sorry for my behaviour”, the younger brother said as he hugged his elder brother.
They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox on his shoulder. “No, wait! Stay a few days. I have a lot of other projects for you,” said the older brother.
“I’d love to stay on”, the carpenter said, “but, I have many more bridges to build!”
Prayer
Let us pray!
Father, you are a bridge builder, a way maker and Your desire for Your people, the ones called by You is that we be one with You. Send forth Your Spirit today , Lord, that we may be created, recreated. That You may renew the face of the earth! For it is in the Name of Your Precious Son, Jesus, we pray! Amen!
Today’s text comes to us from the 17th Chapter of the Gospel of John, beginning with the 20th verse. If you have your Bibles please open to that text, or you can follow along on the screens.
Let me give you a little background to this passage. Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane immediately prior to his betrayal by Judas and is praying. Luke’s gospel says that He was praying so earnestly that His sweat falling to the ground were as great drops of blood! These are Jesus’ final pleas to the Father before His crucifixion. It is a plea for unity among the disciples and those that would come after.
Follow along as In read…
Scripture Text
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
21 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.
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
23 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.
I. Sermon Text
The message today is one that has been on my heart for a long time, even before I was asked to speak today.
We began a few weeks ago a study in Sunday School on the subject of Unity. We are using a resource from Pastor Francis Chan, some of you may know about him, entitled “Until Unity”. The thesis is derived from Jesus statement, in verse 21 and again 23, “…that they may all be one…so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
As we read this book, it occurred to all of us that this should really be a sermon series. You know, like we used to do; followed up with small groups studies. After all, the subject of unity is so important that Jesus sweated blood while praying for it! Do you also realize that He prays for it to this very day before the altar of God as our Great High Priest!
Now, there are two facets we need to consider when we speak of unity within the (C)church. The first is the big “C”, or the Church Universal. The second is the local church body, such as Faith Community Church.
What I hope you will understand is that the local church and the global church are interconnected. What one does affects the other. (Ripple effect).
How many of you realize that Christianity is the most divided “religion”, if you will, on the face of the planet? (200 / 45,000).
Now these are just numbers, terrible numbers I might add, but what do they mean?
The first thing they tell us, just like in our story, throughout history the tendency of human kind, instead of looking for our commonality, our “blood relations”, we allow our disputes to stand, to grow, to fester if you will, and drive us further apart. The longer these differences are allowed to go on, the wider the divide and the more difficult to reconcile.
Martin Luther (1517) was not after a church named for him, or any other denomination to be formed. His sole objective was a reformed unified Church. But, the hardness of the hearts of the Catholic leadership couldn’t see it, couldn’t get past their own selfish desires. It was foolish pride raising its ugly head, AGAIN! Remember that pride is what caused Adam and Eve to sin against God in the first place.
Today, most, if not all of us believe that we will only achieve unity when we win all others over to our way of thinking. But, our divisions are caused by much deeper issues: our conflicting desires,
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
our propensity for jealousy and self-ambition
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
and ultimately the immaturity of our faith.
The second thing they tell us, is we are not teaching nor are we following God’s message of reconciliation, a message of great love. Like the two brothers in our story, we try to put up walls or dig trenches to further the divide. Instead, we should be so focused on the cross of Jesus that separation from any child of God is unthinkable. We should be building bridges!
Did you get the symmetry, the imagery in our story? I don’t think it coincidental that our bridge builder is described as a carpenter!
So, hear me when I say that this is a matter of global importance. At the same time, it is a matter of importance right here at Faith Community Church!
Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane was for all Christians to be one with Him, as He is one with the Father. Once in perfect oneness, only then will the message be powerful and reach the masses. All of creation saved is the goal of this unity. Yet, Jesus knows that not all will be saved, only those given to Him by the Father. You hear Him say time and again, “Let those who have eyes to see and ears to hear...”. His message is for those chosen, and everyone all at once!
So, let’s bring this closer to home, shall we?
Let me ask you a question: How much time do you spend praising God each morning? Asking for things doesn’t count; reading a Bible passage or devotion doesn’t count. I am asking, “How much time do you spend staring at Him and telling Him how amazing He is?
Church, we were enemies of God destined for His wrath; which we deserve! Let that sink in!
But, God sent His Son, Jesus to be tortured and murdered on the cross to appease God’s wrath. Does that truth move you in any way? (Recall the movie: The Passion).
You are reconciled to God and adopted as His child. How do you go a day without praising Him for this?!
Church, there is nothing more important you have to do today, or any day for that matter, than worshipping Jesus!
Pastor Chan goes on to say, “that the path to unity is through worship”. I have to agree.
Did you know that it is impossible to be angry when you worship; to think ill of anyone; to be spiteful? Why? Because you are focused on Jesus.
Charles Spurgeon, in his 1903 sermon on Unity, says the same thing as Pastor Chan; worship is the way forward. He says that when two true believers get together , it matters not what their theological backgrounds may be, it doesn’t matter from whence they come. The only thing that matters is loving Jesus and Him crucified! They are speaking the same love language and can recognize it blindfolded!
Telephones before caller ID
To be truly unified, we need to follow instructions.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
We need to stop thinking that our primary duty toward our fellow believers is to critique them. Our primary duty is to love them. “We owe a debt of love to each other”.
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Finally, let’s take an even closer look into unity. We’ve talked about the Church Universal and the local church body. But, self-examination is where it all begins.
We humans seem to have a casual, dismissive attitude toward unity, and that is incredibly dangerous for three reasons:
God is disgusted with it
The world is confused by it
“Have you ever considered how an outsider must view us? Try to imagine an unbeliever going online and trying to make sense of all the different denominations, church splits, competitive advertising and open slander. It would be like my family screaming frantically at each other while walking through an orphanage to meet kids wanting adoption!”
It could be evidence that the Holy Spirit is not in us.” - Francis Chan
If you find yourself unconcerned about this or even apathetic toward the commands of God then you might have a bigger problem than you think. It is possible that the Holy Spirit is not in you and that you are not really saved. Shocked? You shouldn’t be. Hear the marks of a true believer:
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Just because you believe a truth, affirming a Biblical truth, is no guarantee that you possess it. Paul explains that a person “rooted in the Spirit” produces good fruit. Any good farmer will tell you it’s not enough to prune the branches. You have to dig at and tend the roots for the plant / tree to be healthy. So, we must get to the root of why we do things that don’t bear good fruit. Jesus says the problem is a heart problem.
You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
It’s a connected-ness problem as well. These things happen not because we aren’t trying hard enough but, that we are not connected to the Spirit of God. And that, my friends, is a serious problem!
So, what is the answer, then. LOVE is the answer! Not a superficial, shallow kind of love but, the deep kind of love that only the Spirit of God provides; the same kind of love that held Jesus to the cross! Forget about all of our differences in theology! When we love deeply, as Jesus instructed us, “it covers a multitude of sin”
Hatred stirs up strife,
but love covers all offenses.
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
Jesus, literally, told us that these two are the most important things we can do!
No matter how many Bible verses you can recite and how well you can teach scripture, you have to be willing to examine your life to see if the Spirit truly resides in you. Humility and repentance always lead to life and grace.
I want to leave you with the hope that only Jesus can provide.
Throughout the Scriptures, we see God place people in seemingly impossible situations. He then moves miraculously to display His power (e.g., parting the Red Sea, raising Lazarus from the dead, etc.).
As our divisions increase and deepen, we find ourselves again in a situation that requires a miracle. Now seems to be the perfect time for God to answer the prayer that Christ prayed for oneness (John 17).
While some people in the church add to the division, I believe there is a much greater army of believers who are done with all the needless fights and factions. There are swarms of saints on their knees praying like Christ that we would become one.
Most importantly, we have a God who performed the most loving act in history because He wanted us to be one with Him. Why wouldn’t we believe that He would move now to make His children one with each other?
Charles Spurgeon, in his great sermon, believed that the unity of the true believer had / has already been achieved. Just as you can spot the true believer by the great love they produce, the immature Christian stands out as well by the fruit they do not produce.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
instructs us, “…choose this day whom you will serve…But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Please pray with me, like you have never prayed it before, the prayer our Lord Jesus taught us...
Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name!
Thy kingdom come, THY will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Lead us naught into temptation but, deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, the power and glory, forever and ever!
Amen!
Come, Lord Jesus, have Your way with us. Unite us as one with You. Thy will be done! Amen!
GO IN PEACE, CHURCH, TO LOVE AND SERVE OUR LORD! THANKS BE TO GOD!
