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If you would turn with me to John chapter 17; you can find that on page 903 in the pew Bibles. On this Easter Sunday evening, we are coming to the end of what has been called Jesus’ farewell discourse, His High Priestly prayer. In John’s gospel, these are Jesus’ final moments and His final words to His disciples prior to the events of His arrest leading up to His crucifixion. There is a certain gravity, a solemnity, to what Jesus says here in these chapters that should impress upon us the significance and the meaning of Easter. And back at the beginning of the year, Ed Hartman began this series in John chapter 13 in order to prepare us for Easter, in order to encourage us to saturate ourselves, to saturate our lives with these final words of Jesus to His followers on the night before He was crucified. And tonight we come to the last few verses of John chapter 17, the last part of Jesus’ prayer. He has prayed for the glory of the Father and the Son. He has prayed about the identity and the calling of His disciples. And tonight, we find that He prays for the unity and the mission of His people. And so let’s turn our attention to God’s Word. Before we read, let’s ask God to help us to understand. Let’s pray.

Father, we come to this passage tonight, a few short verses, that are filled with wonders and mystery that could lead us to our knees with wonder and could test our comprehensions for the rest of our lives. So in the moments that we have tonight, we ask that You would give us wisdom, and by Your grace and by the Holy Spirit that You would help us to hear and help us to understand, help us to know what You say to Your disciples, to us. We ask, Father, that You would speak, for Your servants listen. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

John chapter 17 verse 20:

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 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. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 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. 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. 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.”

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.

In this part of Jesus’ prayer there are four little Greek words that are found over and over again – “en, hēn, hina, and hen” – got that? “en, hēn, hina, and hen.”

“En,” means “in,” and it’s found seven times in these verses. “You, Father, are in Me and I in You.” Verse 23, “I in them and You in Me.” There is a union between Father and Son and the people of God. And then there is “hēn,” three times in these verses. It’s translated as “that” or “which.” Verse 22 – Jesus says that it’s “the glory that You have given to Me that I have given to them.” In verse 24, again, it’s the glory “that the Father gave the Son because of their love from before the foundation of the world.” And verse 26, Jesus says to the Father that it’s the love “with which You have loved Me that may be in them.” This little word, it identifies the kind of glory and the type of love which Jesus provides to believers.

And then there’s “hina.” “Hina” means “in order that,” and it’s nine times in these verses. Jesus is praying “in order that believers may be one;” “in order that the world may know;” “in order that they may see His glory.” And then “hen” – four times in these verses in Jesus’ prayer. It perhaps best captures the theme of this part of Jesus’ prayer and it’s simply translated as, “one.” Jesus prays that they may all be one; that they may be one “even as we are one.” That they may become perfectly one. Jesus is praying for the unity of His followers, that there would be the closest bond between Him and the believers in Christ, a bond that surpasses our wildest imaginations. And it’s pretty clear what Jesus is praying here. In fact, there are almost identical phrases in verses 21 to 23. If you look back at verse 21 it says, “that they may all be one,” and then down to verse 22, the second half of that verse it says, “that they may be one even as we are one.” And go back to verse 21, it says, “Just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they may also be in us.” And then down to verse 23 again, “I in them and You in Me that they may become perfectly one.” And then one more time, verse 21, it says, “So that the world may believe,” and then verse 23, “So that the world may know.” There’s something of an A-B-C repeating pattern in these few verses of Jesus’ prayer.

Unity in Christ

It’s not hard to identify what Jesus is asking for in this part of His prayer, but it’s impossible to grasp the mystery and the wonder of the glory and the love and the unity that Christ accomplishes in His salvation and that He gives to those who trust in Him. And we can outline these verses, we can describe them to the best of our abilities with the words and the theology that is available to us, but these things are beyond the limits of our finite minds and comprehensions. This is no ordinary or generic unity that Jesus is praying for in these passages.

Unity is somewhat of a buzzword today in politics, in sports, and even in the church as well. And we’ve been watching – I’m sure many of you have been watching some of the NCAA tournament. We filled out our brackets and have been following along the tournament over the past few weeks. I’m not too ashamed to say that the girls in our house beat the boys in the house pretty badly, myself included! I have not done well with my picks this year! But if you’ve followed along with the tournament you may have noticed that one of the venues where they’re playing this year is called “Unity Court.” There’s a court called “Unity Court.” We hear a lot about unity these days.

And oftentimes that unity that we hear about is vague and it can be a nonspecific kind of unity that is more about tolerance and acceptance and validation at all costs and above anything else, even in the church. There can become a pursuit of community as the most important thing. I saw a study on church names, recent church names of new churches that have been formed, and three of the words that you find appearing in new church names, more often than many others, are, “Fellowship,” “Assembly,” and “Community.” There is a desire for community, and that community desire can be so much so that it becomes even an idol in some cases. One writer says that, “The search for the perfect community sometimes means the search for an undefinable, unquantifiable quality of togetherness, intermingling, and unity.” Sometimes that search for community can become self-focused and inward-facing.

And yet there’s nothing vague or undefinable about the unity for which Christ prays here in this prayer. It is unity that is in Christ. There must be faith in Jesus because this is a oneness that is centered on Christ and it comes from trusting in Him and from trusting in Him alone and believing the Gospel message about Jesus. Jesus says, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.” Jesus’ prayer is for unity, but it’s for those who are in the circle of faith. This is a specific request for a specific group of people. It’s for those who believe in Jesus as the Messiah, as the Christ, as the Savior of sinners, as the only way to the Father, as the only way to eternal life. We could say it another way – that this is a unity that is based on truth. Jesus says in John 14, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but through Me.” He prayed it earlier in this prayer. He says, “Father, sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth.” There’s no unity without faith in Jesus. There’s no unity without truth.

I read recently a story about B.B. Warfield – years ago, the professor at Princeton Seminary. And he was going soon to his denomination’s General Assembly and a friend of his says that he told him he was going to be praying for unity at the assembly. And whether Warfield was just feeling grumpy that day or he had other concerns on his mind, he said that, “If there is heresy or error at the assembly, I hope that you’ll pray for conflict, for a fight.” It’s because there cannot be unity without truth. Truth and unity go together. Truth and love go together. John Stott said this. He said that, “Truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love, and love becomes soft if it’s not strengthened by truth.” Unity depends on the truth. Unity depends on a person. It depends on the person of Jesus Christ.

And faith in Jesus is required to accomplish and to achieve that unity. And because it is faith in Jesus Christ that accomplishes that unity, it is a fellowship that is shared with Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with the triune God. It’s fellowship with the Trinity. Faith in Jesus unites a person with Father and Son as we read in these verses, and by implication, unites a believer with Father, Son and Holy Spirit – One, one with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, so also believers are one with each other. One glory – the glory that belongs to God, Jesus gives to His followers. One love – the love with which the Father loved the Son, Jesus gives to His disciples; a love that’s from before the foundation of the world. That is the love of God for His people and His people for one another. “The life we share as Christians is nothing less than a participation in the life of the Godhead,” is the way one commentator says it. Another one says this. That this unity, “It’s a unity which not merely reflects but actually participates in the unity of God.”

How can that be? Okay, yes, maybe God can forgive our sins. Maybe God will treat us better than we deserve. Maybe He will let us into heaven one day. But this? But this? To be united to Him in love and in glory, to enjoy the fellowship and the community for which we were created and with which nothing else will satisfy us, and for this to be unlimited and unbreakable and unending? This is more than we can take in. This is more than our words can express. This is more than our imaginations can take in. Perhaps the best analogy that we can give is the analogy that the Bible gives to us. What analogy is that? It’s the analogy of marriage. Paul, in Ephesians chapter 5, he says that husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He quotes from Genesis 2:24 which says, “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.” That two become one. And Paul says, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” It’s a mystery and it’s profound – two becoming one; this unity, Christ and the church, Christ and His people – it’s a profound mystery.

A few years ago we had a painter come to do some work at our house and he had been there a couple of times and he had talked to Molly only. I hadn’t seen him yet. And so when I finally went back to meet him, I was home and went back to meet him, I walked back into the room and the first thing that came out of his mouth when he saw me was, “Y’all look alike.” He was saying that Molly and I look alike. It’s the first thing that came to his mind; the first thing that came out of his mouth when he saw me. I loved it! And he could never realize how much of a compliment he paid me by saying that. And there’s something about when couples have been together for a long time they start to look alike and they start to dress alike and they start to sound alike and they even start to think alike. And that’s the mystery of marriage – of two becoming one. That’s the significance of us promoting and protecting and nurturing our own marriages. That’s why we’re having a marriage seminar on Friday night. Please come and join us. If you can’t join us, listen to the recordings online. Because marriage points to the mystery of Christ and the Church. We are united together with Christ in a bond of love – a love that is from God and a love that is for God and a love that is for one another. That’s what Jesus is praying for here in this prayer.

Unity without Uniformity

And that really is the deep desire of all the things that we hear when we hear about community and doing life together and finding your group of finding your niche. This is what we desire with one another. We desire love for one another. We desire a tight knit fellowship, a closeness and a harmony with one another. And yet sometimes there’s not that big a difference between being close and being closed. And there’s not that big a difference between having harmony and being homogenous. What Jesus is praying for here, He is praying for a unity without uniformity. Verse 20, “I do not pray for these only but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.” Jesus, He’s expanding the boundary of His prayer to include not just those who are sitting in the room with Him but those who are sitting in this room tonight. And to include all who are alive today who are trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation. We are included in this prayer.

Now think about that. That’s stunning. That is thrilling to think that 2,000 years ago, that Jesus, during His ministry when He is hours away from the cross, He is praying for you and He is praying for me. Nothing can excite us more to think about Jesus’ prayer for us. And He prays that we would be one with each other – not just a unity that exists in the present, but He’s actually praying for a unity that spans throughout history. And it spans across generations and across borders of geography. That’s one of the reasons that we say from time to time The Apostles’ Creed and The Nicene Creed and the various confessions and creeds of our church. It’s because we are united together with brothers and sisters in Christ who have lived long before us and who will live long after us. One theologian put it this way – that “that which unites all true Christians has always been more than that which divides.”

And Jesus prays for this unity for a particular purpose. It’s that it would be a witness to the world about Him. Look at verse 21. “So that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” Verse 23, “So that the world may know You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.” “The world” are those who do not believe in Jesus. In fact, in verse 25 it says, “The world does not know You.” “The world” are those who are outside of the community of faith. They are not a part of the unity of Christ’s disciples. In fact, “the world” includes those who are opposed to the way of Christ. Think back to what we have seen even in this discourse and even in this High Priestly prayer that Jesus talks about the way in which the world will hate Jesus’ disciples because the world hated Him. And He says that, “in the world you will have trouble,” you will have tribulation. In fact, it’s the world that put Jesus on the cross.

David Strain mentioned on Friday evening Jesus’ prayer from the cross, “Father, forgive them of their sins.” That if Jesus prays for those who are crucifying them, how can we doubt His love for us? And we see the same thing here in this passage – here He is praying for the world, the world which is going to hate His disciples and put Him on the cross, and yet He prays for them. How can we doubt His love for us and that He prays for us and loves us with an eternal love? The world, the world includes not just those who hate Jesus and hate His disciples. The world also includes Jew and Gentile. Jew and Gentile. He’s praying a prayer that will break down cultural and historical and geographical and religious barriers, that will overcome prejudice and animosity and fear to come together to be held together in the love of God.

A few years ago, the grandson of the inventor of Sweet’N Low wrote a book about his family’s story and about how his side of the family was actually written out of the family’s inheritance; they were cut off. He says in that book that his grandmother, Betty, lived according to the principle that love is finite; that there’s only a certain amount of love to go around. You have to be careful how you dispense it because one day it will run out. And it did for him, and his family was cut out of the family.

God’s not like that. God’s love is infinite and it extends to the world. It extends to the guilty and the self-righteous. It extends to the religious and the atheist, to the rich and the poor, to the old and the young, to the black and the white and the brown and everything in between. It extends to all who trust in Jesus for salvation and it is the unity of believers, it’s the unity of those within the circle of faith with those differences that testifies to those outside of Jesus and of His glory and of His love. You see, the beauty of the unity of the Church is that it’s not static. It doesn’t stay the same. No, it’s dynamic and it’s spreading and it’s a living unity. It’s really something of a paradox – that a fellowship that can be so united together as one can at the same time be constantly, should be constantly changing. It seems like a contradiction. It seems impossible. And that’s really the point because what we have here is Jesus praying to the Father for this because this kind of unity is a work of God and of God alone. It’s a supernatural work and it exists only through Jesus.

See, Jesus is praying for a Christ-centered, outward-facing unity. He’s praying for something that is at the same time deeply and ultimately satisfying for His disciples and which will also make them uncomfortable. He’s praying for something that is going to upset their status quo. It’s going to upset their feeling of safety. In The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis writes that “to love is to be vulnerable.” He says, “Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to be sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one.” He says, “Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness, but in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. In other words, it will die.” Jesus is praying for a love and a unity that is not locked up and dying, but it’s unleashed and living; that will take the Gospel to the outsider, to those who are different and to those that are difficult. What He’s saying here is that we cannot have evangelism without unity, but He’s also saying that we cannot have evangelism along with uniformity. That the love of Jesus is not something that we keep to ourselves but it’s for the world.

How will the world know Jesus? Number one, by telling others about Him through the Word. And number two, by the supernatural, countercultural, Christ-centered, outward-facing unity of the people of God. That’s Jesus’ prayer for you. That’s His prayer for us. That’s His desire and His focus as He approaches the cross. That’s how important these things are for Jesus. And probably the best application for us as we think through this passage is to pray. Is this important to us? Is this sort of unity without uniformity important to us that we would pray for it, that we would be united together and that we would see the world and the outsider come in to join into that unity and love? This is a unity that reaches out so that others will come to faith in Christ and it does not happen on its own. We cannot manufacture it. We cannot plan for it. God has to do it, and it goes against all of our natural tendencies.

We like things to stay the same, don’t we? You’ve probably said it; I’ve said it. We’ve heard it a bunch of times over the past year – we can’t wait for things to get back to normal. And we want to get back to our familiar Bibles studies and Sunday School classes and Discipleship Groups. And yet a lot of times what can happen in those groups is that they can start to gravitate around things other than Jesus. And we can collect ourselves around a shared past or similar lifestyles or preferences or personalities. In fact, oftentimes I hear that said about Jackson culture in general – that because we are so connected, we’re connected by families and school and past and neighborhoods, that it can be difficult for someone outside to break in and to feel connected and to be included. It’s what we know. It’s what’s comfortable to us and we don’t want it to change. But if we resist and refuse changes in our congregation, in our Bible studies, in our Discipleship Groups, our Sunday School classes, then we may very well be loving uniformity rather than loving Christ and others.

We’re starting back Sunday School next week. If you look around this sanctuary there are a lot of new faces that have come into the church over the last year. Will we be ready to welcome them in and to reach out, to bring them in and to enjoy that fellowship and unity that is ours in Christ? That is a challenge for us. That’s a challenge for us from Jesus’ prayer tonight. Oftentimes we try to find community around things that cannot truly unite us and that will not last. And when we do that, those things will die. We’ll become ingrown and exclusive and stagnant. And when change comes – and change will come; change always comes. Whether it’s someone getting sick or moving away or dying, or whatever the reason, or maybe when there is an effort to reach out to new people, oftentimes that can bring with it conflict and dissatisfaction and a type of disunity. What we have to realize, though, is that the more differences that are included in our unity, the greater the depth of our unity and the greater the mix of gifts that come into that fellowship and the more compelling witness it is to the power of Christ and the Gospel to bring together people from every nation, tribe, language and tongue as one people of God through faith in Jesus. Nothing else can do it. Everything else will change and fail, but Jesus is the constant because Jesus never changes. Jesus and His love is eternal. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. It’s only in Him that we experience this blessing of deep and unending and vital unity that extends to others and brings most glory to God. And that’s why we need to be constantly committing ourselves, recommitting ourselves in devotion to Christ and in welcoming and reaching out to others around us.

The last thing Jesus prays in this prayer, it’s really a summary if you look at verse 26, it’s a summary of His entire prayer and really His entire ministry. He says, “I have made known to them Your name and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me will be in them and I in them.” “Will continue to make it known” – what’s Jesus talking about there? He’s talking about what He is about to do at the cross and in His resurrection. The cross and the resurrection display Christ’s love and glory. The cross and the resurrection bring about the unity of God’s people. The cross and the resurrection bring salvation to the world. And Jesus died and was raised to give us what He prays for here in this passage. He loves us with an agape love – that’s the word here. An agape love – a love that is selfless and sacrificial and infinite and free. And when we are united in that love then we can give that same love to others.

And sometimes we get it backwards, don’t we? We think that if we share enough and if we have enough enjoyable experiences together with someone, then we can have unity and love them. But what we find in the Gospel, actually, is that we have love, the love of Christ, and we are united together in Christ so that we then can share and enjoy time with each other. That’s why Christ died and was raised and that’s what He prays for here; that’s what brings Him the most glory, the most glory to His name. A unity without uniformity to the glory of God. Let’s pray that God would do that tonight. Let’s pray.

Father, we come before this passage with humility and amazement that You would love us in such a way. So often we forget how much You love us and we try to earn it, we try to manufacture it, we try to do it on our own. Help us to rest in Your love. Help us to remember the unity for which You have accomplished for us in the cross and in Your resurrection, through faith. Help us to live for Your glory. Help us to live in love for one another. We pray that You would do a work in this congregation, that You would do a work outside this congregation, that You would bring in those among us to be united with You and united with one another. That the world would see it and recognize that this can only be the work of God and that You alone would get the glory for it. Would You do that? Would You do that through us because You love us and You’re pleased to do it? We pray all of this in Jesus’ name, amen.

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