A Prayer for His Church

If you have a bible or a copy of God’s Word open it up to John 17. Pray with me....

I have titled the Message this morning “A Prayer for His Church” Last week we started this incredible prayer that Jesus prayed to the Father, and in this prayer we saw the unique relationship between the Father and the Son, and specifically we saw Jesus prays that his work and words have glorified God and as a result those who follow him with continue in the faith.

now as we continue this prayer the end of the text we begin to see this shift, and the shift is really a prayer for Christ’s church, and the prayer he is praying towards the end of the text is prayer for unity in the church. Because this text is so powerful, and so important to us I want again read this to you this morning and then we will dive into the text together…

John 17 ESV

1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. 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. 24 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. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 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.”

Now unity should be a mark of the Church. But I personally believe a lack of unity is one the biggest issues in the church today, and has been since Jesus left this earth. That is why I believe we see Jesus so passionately praying for unity. Because when the church is truly unified nothing in this world can stop it.

Unity has been seen all throughout this gospel of John between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Last week I mentioned that there is a triune unity in the salvific work of God, and not only that but this unity between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is a perfect example of unity to us.

Now just a moment ago I said unity is one of the biggest issues in the church today, and that should not be surprising to us, because unity in general is an issue that we face in our everyday lives. In this country you automatically get put into camps based on your religious beliefs, political parties, sporting teams interest, ect.. and all those things listed either unite or divide us, but the crazy thing about those things I listed often do unite people who otherwise would not be united.

Ill give you a few examples that this is clearly seen in…

I have not been alive as long as a-lot of you have, but politically we have seen this shift where dominate issues tend to aline those who otherwise would never come together. Clear example’s of this are pro-life, pro-choice, pro Biblical marriage, against Biblical marriage, transgender issues, the economy, who or who isn’t the president the list could really go on and on, and what we see through all those issues is that people come together from all walks of life united in a common purpose, minimizing things that are less important for the common goal of getting something accomplished.

With sports teams we see it as well. Man you go to a sooner’s game and you have people from all walks of life, different economic background, different degrees, different political parties, different religions and yet none of that matters because you are rooting for your team to win.

So why is it we can be united in the lesser things, but not be unified as a church, well its because to often in the church we care more about our own preferences rather than the one we come together to worship. Churches all the time have issues over things that we should not have issues over, because we don’t keep the mission of the church as a focus like Jesus did and continues to do.

And in this lack of unity the church gets a bad wrap, and rightfully so, because it looks more like the world, and less like the church, the church should be the the closest thing to heaven we have on earth so others truly see the greatness of Christ, and while that may seem to you and I as something that can’t be accomplished, it in fact can because of the work of Christ, and the prayer he has for his church.

Because Jesus gives us his glory, and the Holy Spirit we can have this unity because if you are a believer in Christ you are truly one with him and can be one with one another. Not by your own strength, but by the power of God working in you, and in all believers..

So the main idea I want you to get today is this…

Jesus prays for the all believers in him that they are so unified that the world would believe that Jesus has come.

What a blessing for us today that we not only have a savior who died for us, but a savior who prays for us. Specifically in this text he prays for unity.

I have several things that I want you to take note of today. Two things that Jesus is praying for and four things on how we as a church can be unified. These are in your bulletin and posted online as well.

The first is this…

Jesus prays for the unity of believers

When we get into verse 20 we see a shift in Jesus prayer, and he is praying for all those who believe in him through the disciples, and through people like you and me.

If you think about it we all have come to know Jesus because of the faithfulness of those before us. Starting with the disciples who are with Jesus and continuing today, and the goal of all who witness to others is that we share a common faith in Jesus. While Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus its also a shared relationship with all those who believe in Jesus.

There is this new trend that is going around and that is their are multiple Christianities sounds crazy right, because the reality is there is only one Christianity anything outside of a true relationship with Jesus is not Christianity, and Jesus makes it very clear in this prayer that believers in him should be one just as him and the father are one. And this closeness of the Father and Son is an example to us to be one.

Christian unity is a result of entering into a deep relationship that exists within the Trinity. And what Jesus is praying for is that this unity would be so evident that the world would in fact believe that God the Father sent Jesus. And church that is something I believe we don’t take seriously enough.

You go and ask people outside the church and often they are so confused on why Christians are so different if they worship the same God. They will ask why many professing Christians don’t believe the same, or act the same, and we wonder why we have lost our witness, and ill touch more on that later. But if you think about it, Division causes confusion. The more the church is divided the less effective it can be. If you think about the father of lies the devil that is what he loves to do confuse the church from the mission it is called to and causes this disunity.

God is not the author of confusion, but the author of Truth, and he gives us something to be unified in and that is faith in Jesus. Believers no matter the background are connected to Jesus by faith. Like i mentioned just a moment ago, their is but one true saving faith, and that is found in Jesus and him alone.

So if that is truly the case the church should be the most unified place in the world, because we worship the one who reconciles us together, that means the world should know us by who we believe in and know that we live as though he actually came.

I wonder what it would look like if each and every church was so unified, so together thats its focus was on Christ so much that the world could not help but see Christ through it. Unity does not cause division and that is what Jesus is praying in this prayer to us.

Second thing I want you to write down is this…

Jesus prays that believers would be reunited with him.

We know this is the case before this prayer, because back in chapter 14. We saw that Jesus in his leaving was preparing a place for those who are his. Remember back in John 14 it said…

John 14:1–3 ESV

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

In this prayer he says it is his desire that all the father had given them would be with him in heaven. Remember this if you are a believer in Christ Jesus wants you with him in heaven that is why he came.

He wants his to see his glory. I like what R.C. Sproul says, “The greatest benefit of Christianity is not the forgiveness of sins; that’s simply a means to an end. The greatest benefit that we have is access to the presence of God and His Son. That’s where Jesus wants us to be.”

Yes Jesus forgives us of our sins if we believe in him, but he allows us to be with him for all of eternity. The promise of the destination should be one of the most unifying things in the Christian life.

Jesus continues in this prayer reminding the Father of this great love he has for his son. This love that has existed all throughout eternity. this love that overflows into the incarnation, and this love that Jesus showed the father in his perfect obedience revealing to his creation who God actually is.

No one knew God like Jesus, because Jesus is God, and in his grace he showed himself to the world so that they could know God, and he is going to continue to do that very thing for all of eternity.

Now this text has many applications for us today, I am just going to give you four though I believe I could give you more.

The first application for us is this…

In order to be unified as his church we must be unified in his word.

In verse 22, Jesus says that he has given the world this glory. Part of the glory he gives is his word. I don’t think anyone would ever walk through the door and say this church does not believe in the bible. I have made it my mission to preach and teach from the bible, and you as a church have been doing that from its very existence.

However, the church as a whole has gotten to a point where many churches have began to preach and teach something other than the words of scripture, and that in itself causes us as the capital c church to not be unified. And it causes that confusion that the world sees to often, One of the most unifying things the global church could do as a whole is stand firm in saying we believe in the bible, and we believe as we learned on Wednesday night last month that The Holy Scriptures are the only sufficient, certain, and infallible standard of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. If the church wants to be unified than it cant be full of opinions but of truth. I can’t think of a better way to show the world that we believe Jesus was sent into the world than to believe his word.

Second application point is this…

In order to be unified as his church we must be unified in the love of God.

God’s love is a different kind of love than the world typically sees and that is a sacrificial love. Something I read this week shows us what kind of love we should have for one another. And I believe this kind of love would show the world that we believe in the one who is sent into the world . One man said, “Our love for another is reflected as we bear one another's burdens, how we instruct one another, how we forgive one another, how we pray for one another, how we submit to one another, how we encourage one another, and how we provoke one another, not to anger, but to love and good works.”

Love is something the world has tried to take away and distort into something it really isn’t and the church has failed to love as the Christ has loved his church and churches throughout the world should take note that and see how we love one another really impacts our unity. We can’t come gather as a church body, and truly show the world we are different and unified if inside and outside these walls we dont love one another. Unity shows up in sacrificially love.

Our love should be so different that the world around it craves to see the one we love. One man said it so well, “When a non-Christian sees a unified church, the only logical conclusion is God loves us just like he loves Jesus. A group of believers spanning generations and ethnicity and gender, all worshiping Christ and ministering to one another, will make the unbelieving stop and say God’s love is real. A unified church is a billboard declaring Jesus came to Earth because the Father loves us with the love reserved for his Son, Could their possibly be a more compelling appeal to the broken world.”

Church that is so convicting to me… Makes me want to change the sign to we love others as Christ as loved us!

Because in my mind I want that but in the flesh I fail to love as Christ has taught me to, and I know that has caused others to not see the Love of God from me, but I know if I show the love of Christ to the world they can see Christ through me, and the world can see it in this church.

Third application this morning is this..

In order to be unified as his church we must be unified in mission.

I wonder if you are tired of me talking about the mission yet, its been a constant theme the last several months. But I hope you are not, I hope it motivates you to live out the mission. But I am not going to talk about our mission of this church today, but the global mission of all Christians. And that is the great commission.

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Along the way we have lost the focus of this very thing. The focus that Jesus gave believers this charge to Go into the world, and fulfill the mission that he has called us to. Reaching those who are not reached with the gospel, baptizing them, teaching them about the one who saved us, while remembering Jesus never leaves us, verse 26 gives us hope, because it says, I will continue making it known to them, the teaching that Jesus gave them on the Holy Spirit to come, all these great things the Lord hands to us, yet we fail to do this very thing.

It seems that we have gotten so far away from the mission that we ourselves don’t even believe it sometimes, and to the watching world we have become people who don’t even believe what they say.

Two things I have heard make me say this one I heard one years ago, and one I read this week. Years Ago I heard a D.C. Talk song called what if I stumble, and in the beginning lyrics it says, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today Is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips Then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable. We live in a world where people say what they believe right either in person, and online, yet we have the greatest news one could give to someone and we don’t live it out or say it to others.

Something I read this week, Thomas Manton says, “Divisions in the church breed atheism in the world.” It makes sense when people in the church can’t even be on the same page. Why would someone outside the church even want to come there?

John MacArthur put it this way, “The effectiveness of the church’s evangelism is devastated by dissension and disputes among it’s members.” Churches often get a bad reputation from within and from outside the church because of the division they have amongst one another, and why is that well its because to often those in the church think this is my church, this is the way it needs to be done, and they do this because they fail to see the first two applications. They fail to first look at the word of God, and see that personally the church isn’t about me its about God, and his glory, and they fail to love another, see we will have differences, and that is ok, God did not make us all the same we are all here to fulfill a different purpose, but we can’t make those differences so bad that it impacts our witness and our unity. This in no way refers to corrective action done properly, but more so when we think its our way or no way, which brings me to my forth and final point.

In order to be unified as his church we must be unified as the body of Christ.

Notice what I said body because Christ is the head…

You might ask how is this different from our mission, Its different because each person if they are believer has certain gifts that God has given them. Romans is just one place that tells us how this works out…

Romans 12:3–8 ESV

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Just like there are 206 bones in the body that work together, there are gifts in the church that help us be unified together. And when members in the body are doing its part it shows that we are truly unified. I dont have the gifts certain people have in this church and vice versa but together we can be the body of Christ this is why the church works so much better and is so much more unified when everyone is present and doing what God has called them to do.

If you have ever injured just the smallest ligament on your body you know that it impacts the whole body, but its also the same when one member isn’t doing their own part the whole body suffers.

Church family this is from my heart, my hope is that Jesus prayer of unity for his church is visibly and clearly seen through the people of Agape, and that is manifested to the watching world. I want us to be so unified by the word of God that the world knows we belong to Jesus and he has come. I want our love to be so evident that the world knows we belong to Jesus and he has come. I want our mission to be so clear that the world knows we belong to Jesus and he has come, and I want you to play your part in this church so the world knows we belong to Jesus and he has come.

However I know there may be people in here or online who don’t know the one who prayed this great prayer today and I would say that today verse 20 may be for you today. Just as a reminder let me re read it to you.

John 17:20 ESV

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

Jesus came to earth, and the gospel of John calls him the word, and him being the word gave this message to the word that he sacrificially loves the world in which he came into, and he loved the world so much that he went on mission for God living this sinless perfect life of obedience to God the Father in such a way where he as we will see very soon in the gospel of John died for sinners, those who believe in him he loved them so much to face the wrath of God on the cross to the point of death, but God loved us so much that on the third day Jesus rose again showing that he and he alone has authority over the power of sin and death, and he had to because the bible says that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and God being a righteous and perfect God has to deal with sin, and if you are in Christ he deals with it through his Son, but if you are you are not in Christ the punishment for you in hell, and separation for God forever, but while you are still here on earth, my prayer is if you don’t know him today will be the day you respond by repentance and faith in him. If thats you today come forward send us a message and be apart of this prayer that Jesus prayed for his church…

Let us pray…