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Introduction: Unity in the High Priestly Prayer

In a few weeks, we will begin a series that will run parallel to the Alpha course, which will be held on Tuesday evenings starting on January 28. This series will run from February 2 until April 13. Each message will address the same topic from the week prior at Alpha.

To prepare for that series, we will be looking at a few topics. Today is the topic of Unity. Next week, we will look at the topic of Doubt. Then, Matthew Barnett will fill in on the 19th in while Lynn and I are away at a Pastor’s retreat. On the 26th, we will look at the topic of Evangelism.

These three topics are important for how we will engage with what are essentially the core beliefs of the Christian faith over the next few months.

Evangelism is a word that carries a lot of baggage. Images that might come to mind could be those of mission trips, street preaching, or going door to door sharing gospel tracts. We will examine what the Bible says about evangelism and how we can be evangelistic in our daily lives.

Doubt is also a loaded word for Christians. If we have any doubts about our faith, the Bible, or the church, we tend to think we are drifting away or lost. We will see in Scripture what it really means to trust Jesus and how to handle our doubts and the doubts of others.

And today, our focus is the topic of Unity. If we are not a unified body, we will struggle to make it very far on this journey of following Jesus. Unity is essential because we will face disagreements as we explore the foundational beliefs of our faith.

As we will see in our passage today, unity was important to Jesus. The New Testament speaks of the church being the body of Christ. In order to be healthy and useful, the body needs to work together. In order for us to be stronger and healthier as a church, we will need to be unified.

John 17:20–23 (NIV)

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

This passage contains three direct references to unity or oneness. But this entire section of Jesus’ prayer is all about being united as believers and united with God through Christ.

Being united to God and the nature of the Trinity are massive topics. They include all sorts of ideas about the nature of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Why God the Father sent Jesus and why it’s important for the world to know that God sent him. And ideas about entering into the Trinitarian relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We will come back to these topics at various points in the next few months. For now, let’s focus on the meaning and function of unity.

We will first see what unity is not, then what it is, and finally, why and how unity happens in the church.

‌What it is not

We get a clue about what unity is not when we think about Jesus’ statement, “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”

The first thing to note is that unity does not mean uniformity. God the Father and the Son are two distinct persons within the Trinity. Without getting too deep into Trinitarian theology, it means that the God of our Bible exists as three persons: an eternal Father, an eternal Son, and an eternal Holy Spirit.

The unity of the Trinity has built-in diversity. Being united does not require being the same. In other words, our differences in personality, gifts, talents, passions, etc., will not be the source of our disunity unless we make those things the centre of our identity as individuals and as a church.

Suppose we are experiencing any level of disunity. In that case, the solution will not be to set aside our differences but to see how our differences contribute to what makes us the body of Christ.

Unity is also not about having the same perspective or experiences. When we encounter God and one another, we will all have different experiences and see things from different perspectives.

Take the Gospels as an example. We have four books in the New Testament that claim to be true accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus. Yet, if you line the Gospels up next to each other, they are different because they are written from different perspectives.

For example, the final words of Jesus are different.

Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

‌In Luke 23:46: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” And in John 19:30: “It is finished.”

The Bible is a united story about who God is and how he is reconciling all of Creation to himself. It is not a history, science, or ethical handbook. While there are ethical implications in Scripture, most of the behavioural commands are interpreted differently depending on context. Biblical interpretation is a significant cause of disunity in the church because we get hung up on what we think the Bible is telling us to do.

In theMennonite tradition in which Lynn and I grew up, there have been numerous church splits over issues such as head coverings, methods of baptism, the role of women, what language is best for prayer and worship, how involved we should be in politics, the use of technology, and the list goes on.

Our unity does not depend on whether or not we wear head coverings. It does not depend on whether we sing hymns or choruses, use old English words such as “thou” and “art” in our prayers, or capitalize the pronouns when referring to God in writing. Unfortunately, these are all examples of things that have been central to strong disagreements and the breaking of fellowship among believers.

Within our own Christian tradition and denomination, there are many different expressions of how God works among us. The EMCC and other denominations often summarize our approach to unity with the quote, “Unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, and love in all things.” This quote goes back at least to the reformation, possibly further.

The original is stated this way:

“In essentials, unity”: Christians should unite around core doctrines, such as the deity of Christ, the resurrection, and salvation by grace through faith.

“In doubtful matters, liberty”: Non-essential or secondary issues (e.g., liturgical practices, modes of baptism) should allow for diversity of opinion.

“In all things, charity”: Regardless of the issue, Christians are called to exhibit love and kindness.

This last statement brings us to look more closely at what unity actually is.

‌What it is

One commentator says,

The unity for which Jesus prays is a unity that rests on a common basic attitude, that of abiding in him and having him abide in them. “It is the Divine unity of love that is referred to, all wills bowing in the same direction, all affections burning with the same flame, all aims directed to the same end—one blessed harmony of love”

While it sure is nice to have everyone on the same page regarding organization and structure, the unity Jesus prays for is much more about a unity of the heart, mind, and will.

Unity of heart means that our ultimate desires are the same. The heart is all about desire. What do we long for? What captures our affections?

This summer, Lynn and I purchased an annual membership at the University of Alberta Botanic Garden. If you ever go there, you will see the ones for whom the garden captures their affections. They bend down to get a closer look at the details. They are passionate about the relationships that each plant has with one another.

The church is meant to consist of people whose hearts bend toward God. In a world full of amusements, are our hearts captured by the love and beauty of God?

What about our minds? What captures our imagination? If you’ve ever gone to a movie theatre at the premiere of a new Star Wars movie, you will be able to identify those whose imaginations are captured by the story of Skywalker, Darth Vader, and the battle between the Republic and the Empire, between the good and evil, the light and dark sides of the force. These people dress up as their favourite characters and know all the backstories.

The story consumes their imagination and thoughts. Does the story of God capture our imaginations? Does the character of Jesus, the power and presence of the Holy Spirit captivate us? Do we share the stories of the Bible out of the overflow of our thoughts about them? These are good questions to consider in light of our entertainment-driven culture.

What about our will? Our will is what motivates us to take action. What is it that drives our activity as individuals and as a church? Consider the motivation of marathon runners. This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. What is it that propels people to train for and then run 26.2 miles in a single stretch? Most runners are not motivated by beating each other’s time. Outside of competitive events like the Olympics, the marathon is not a race against others but against the runner’s previous time. Passionate runners are always seeking to improve on their previous attempt.

What is our motivation? What propels us to run activities, prepare for and lead in worship through music, tend to the sick and dying, and organize Bible studies, Sunday school, and events?

If we are not united in our hearts, minds, and will, it is no wonder we become divided. But, if we are united in those things, we can enjoy a variety of expressions in how we do what we do.

We can appreciate how one person, motivated by love, will bring a meal to someone while another stays home and prays for them. We can understand how someone whose imagination is consumed by the story of Jesus will teach the story to children while another will write about it on social media. We can enjoy the musician’s passion while another is passionate about the technology that makes the music possible.

This is the essence of unity. The uniqueness of individuals whose aims are directed toward the same end, whose affections burn with the same flame, and whose imaginations are captured by the same story.

With that, let’s look at the why and how of unity.

‌Why and how it happens

As I said in the beginning, if we are not a unified body, we will struggle to make it very far on this journey of following Jesus. As we prepare to enter a season of examining the core beliefs, we will need to remind ourselves that disagreement of perspective and interpretation does not need to bring disunity.

In his prayer, as recorded in John 17, Jesus said that the reason for unity among believers is so that the world will believe that God the Father sent Jesus and that the Father loves us just as he loves Jesus. Why is this important?

‌The entire Bible is a story about God bringing reconciliation between himself and a broken and fallen world. The only way we will experience the fullness of being human is to be in fellowship with God. This is foundational to our faith and is an essential motivator for our activity.

We are meant to be people who are experiencing the benefits of reconciliation with God. And our desire will thus be to show what reconciliation with God looks like. This includes the demonstration of God’s love for us.

This is the why of unity. We are one in heart, mind, and will so that people will see for themselves the fruit of being reconciled to God and thus desire that reconciliation for themselves.

As I will expand on further in my upcoming message on evangelism, people will be convinced of their need for reconciliation with God, not so much by a compelling argument as by a church that is united and loves each other even in the midst of our fallen human condition.

So, how can this happen? We will be doomed if unity depends on our efforts. Our best efforts often result only in more conflict. Thankfully, unity does not depend on our effort, at least not on our effort to be united.

To know how unity happens, we must look at what Jesus says in his prayer. Verse 22 says, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one.”

This sentence shows the source of unity: the glory that the Father gave Jesus. How does this work exactly? I had to consult someone smarter than me for an explanation:

Jesus now says that he has given his followers the glory that the Father gave him. That is to say, just as his true glory was to follow the path of lowly service culminating in the cross, so for them the true glory lay in the path of lowly service wherever it might lead them. The little band and its Master were both insignificant as the world counts importance. But the apostles are right with God and therefore they are supremely significant. They have the true glory. They are walking in the way of God. We have seen often in this Gospel that for Jesus the cross is the true glory. Elsewhere it is recorded that he called on his followers to take up their cross in following him (Luke 9:23). For them, too, the way of the cross is the way to true glory.

The glory of Jesus and the source of our unity is found in emptying ourselves for the benefit of others.

The glory that produces unity is the glory of the cross. The glory is not of triumph in the way the powers of the world conquers its enemies. The glory of Jesus requires us to die with him. Only then will we experience the other side of glory, the resurrection into eternal life with God, which is promised to all who trust Jesus.

When we humble ourselves and when our minds, hearts, and motivations prompt us to serve and love one another, we will be united. We will be people who show the reconciling love of God to the world. When this happens, we can be confident that these seats will not be able to contain the number of people coming to worship God and to learn more about how they too can experience this life-giving love.

References:

Morris, Leon. The Gospel according to John. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995.