House of Prayer is Unity
This past week Annie thought that I forgot about Valentine’s Day. But on February 15th I came up to her and said “Happy Day After Valentines Day Honey.” She looked at me like I was strange so I explained to her, “Every other woman is getting treated special on Valentine’s Day, and, I wanted you to feel special and have your own day. So I think from now on we should celebrate the Day After Valentine’s Day.” You might say we didn’t have unity on this one. She wasn’t buying it, and, it doesn’t sound like you guys were either. I don’t think Hallmark makes “Day After Valentine’s Day” cards anyway.
Unity is so important for us as a Church. It cannot be overstated how important it is in the life of the Church, and in the relationships we share. The NT does not have any shortage of passages speaking of unity. For instance, 1st Corinthians 1:10, Paul says, “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” And then again in Ephesians 4:3, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Paul says in Colossians 2:2 that His “purpose is that the churches may be encouraged in heart and united in love…”
Our passage is going to focus only on 4 verses today: 20-23. Three times in this passage Jesus speaks of unity. “Be one” (v21), “be one” (v22), and “brought to complete unity” (v23). Utmost in the prayer of Christ is the unity of those who believe in Him.
Preserved Gospel
Unity is based on all of us believing in the preserved Gospel. Jesus says, “I pray also for those who will [future] believe in me through their message.” The message of the Apostles is the message that has been preserved down through the centuries and is preached even this very morning.
The Gospel is what saves men from hell and saves them to heaven. Romans 1:16 says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” So serious is the preservation of the Gospel that Paul said these words in Galatians 1:8-9, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!”
The Gospel is a message from heaven, it is not from man. When Christ commissioned the Apostles to go and preach the Gospel, He entrusted them with the Gospel. Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:11 that God “entrusted” him with the gospel.
To entrust someone with something means you commit that something to their care. God had put the Gospel into their hands and gave them a trust – He committed the Gospel into their care and the only proper care for the Gospel was to give it as they received it. In other words, Paul, the Apostles, and the Church were to pass on to others what they received without having changed it.
The content of the message is not to be altered. It is to come out of their mouths in the same as it came into their ears. Paul and the Apostles and the faithful in the Church throughout the centuries have guarded the Gospel so that it has been preserved for us today so that we too can hear and believe and be saved. Eternity is at stake in the lives of men when it comes to the preservation and the purity of the Gospel.
Types of Gospel errors. The Social-Activist Gospel, the Cross-Less Gospel, the Therapeutic Gospel.
There is great weight on any man who will stand and speak to men regarding the truth of God in Scriptures. The weight is immense because the accountability is immense. James 3:1 says about men like me, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” Paul also warns men who teach the Word in 2 Timothy2:15, “Do you best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and correctly handles the word of truth.”
You need to pray for me! You need to pray that the Gospel that began with Christ, and then came to the Apostles, and then continued in the Church will be the same Gospel that I continue to preach in my ministry from now to the very end of my ministry. Even more so pray that the ministry of this Church will always be a testimony to men of the true Gospel and have no shame before Christ.
Put yourself to the task of praying for the Gospel to be declared from this Church now and always. Put yourself to the task of praying for the unity of this Church that we would be in unity of pure doctrine and function in unity. Don’t be guilty of dillydallying with prayer.
Pattern for Unity
Another point to note here is our unity with one another is patterned after the unity of God. Jesus says in verse 21, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you..” Then again in verse 22, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one.” We’ve heard this before from Jesus. In John 14:9-10 He said to Philip after Philip asked Him to show them the Father, “Don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father.’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing His work.” The unity between the Father and Jesus Christ is so perfect that to see Jesus is to see the Father. You are not missing out on anything of the Father when you look to His Son Jesus Christ. He is plainly seen and understood when you understand and see Jesus.
What is unity? What does Jesus mean when says, “may they be one” and “may they be brought to complete unity”? There is a positional unity, where we are already united because we are all in Christ by faith. But there is also a functional unity where we function in life and ministry together in unity. In looking at the Scriptures the Church that has unity will prove its unity by having a fellowship characterized by peace and harmony between each other, and love for each other.
Why are these so important? Because the perfect unity of our Triune God displays perfect love and peace and harmony between each person of the Godhead: Father, Son, Spirit. Our Triune God is Unity in Perfection. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one”. There is not division nor fracture in their relationship to each other. Neither the Father, Son, nor Spirit are against each other. Rather, all are in perfect harmony, and share the perfection of unity in their special unique community as the Triune Godhead.
Marriage is a picture of the unity of God…Genesis 1 and 2. It is the responsibility of every spouse to not only want unity preserve unity, but, to promote it. In the same way, in the Church, it is your responsibility and mine to not only protect unity, but, to promote it in the Body of Christ. Ephesians 4:3 says, “Make EVERY EFFORT to keep the unity…” Each member of the Church is to be a proactive agent of unity; which means we are all to be a cause of unity; you and I are actually ordered to be an obstacle to disunity in the Church. Unity is in the image of God and disunity is in the image of the devil. What image are you?
The divine expectation of and the divine work within the Church is a divine unity. Romans 15:5 says, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and with one mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
There is upon each member of the Church, upon each member of Christ, the need to evaluate oneself and ask “Am I a unity maker, or, am I a unity breaker?” “Am I someone who promotes unity and harmony, or, am I someone who creates disunity, division, and dissension?” If you are the former, you work with God, but, if you are the latter you position yourself against God.
Unity is not on accident. Unity in the Church is not “natural”. What is natural is division. We are naturally sinners and the nature of sin and the work of Satan is to create division. Human beings do not need much to make them want to divide. Our nature causes us to be far too ready for pitting ourselves against each other.
I saw an example of this a couple of days ago. Out on the playground with the family and 4 boys were playing tag. They were having a good time…argument over “tag-backs”. I overheard them discussing the 30-second rule that after someone tagged you and you were it, you couldn’t tag them back until 30 seconds had passed. …after a couple minutes two of them walked away together and the other two just watched them. They went from having fun and playing together to divided and hostile in a single moment and over a stupid reason. They took sides, they taunted each other, they yelled insults, they watched each other with a suspicious eye…it was ridiculous. That’s how kids play on a playground and it’s ridiculous that adults play the same way in the Church.
Unity is broken over the stupidest reasons. Division and Disunity are natural, Unity is intentional, requires effort, and is accomplished supernaturally.
It is unnatural. Actually it is supernatural. It is achieved and preserved by the Holy Spirit working in people who have set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Unity is not natural.
Same Position
Unity is also based on the fact that we who have believed the message of the Gospel have the same position. We have the same position before God. That position is 1) in Christ His Son as members of His Body, and 2) a justified position. Justified means that we are declared innocent in God’s sight. We are not seen as guilty but rather we are treated as not guilty. From God’s perspective, a man who has trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins has had his sins cleared and that man - in the eyes of God Almighty - is seen as if he never committed any sin. That man who puts his trust in Jesus Christ is seen as if is of the same righteousness as Jesus Christ even though he is not. That is because that man is now joined to Christ by faith and all of the righteous perfection of Christ is credited to that man – that man did not achieve it. It is a gift to him resulting only from his faith – not from works.
We have unity because all of us have a new and justified position in Christ
Promotes Evangelism
Another point is that Unity promotes evangelism. Twice Jesus says that if the Church is one then the world will know who Christ is. First He says in verse 21, “May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Then in verse 23 He says again, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Unity is visible evangelism. If the world will see the harmonious, loving unity of the Church it is the visible picture to the world of the message that they hear preached. The Gospel, preached by the Church, is the exclusive way for man to be united with God in a right relationship. When they see the Church, who has entered into that relationship with God, living in right relationships with each other, overcoming the obstacles that cause division, then they will see that God is in the Church.
Your testimony of Jesus Christ to this world is indeed related to the quality of unity you experience in your relationships. John 13:34-35, Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Realize that unity is born of heavenly love for people on earth. But what really strikes me is that our Lord expects the Church -Christians - to be the means by which He projects the truth to the world. It is the Church who has been entrusted with the Gospel, not Civil government is not the means.
Prayer Increases Unity
Prayer weaves us together into a deeper unity that nothing else can. Look at Jesus praying to the Father in this chapter. It is a natural expression of the unity with Him. It will be a natural expression of our unity with Him. A united church prays. A divided church will not pray. A prayerless church is a divided church.
I’ve been seeing new things in prayer over the past month. I want to share them with you. One thing I’ve seen is that my motivation to pray is changing from checking something off of my to do list and is becoming more and more of a live engagement with God. If I don’t pray my regret is not that I didn’t “get something done”, but, that I really missed that time with the Father and the Son.
There is another thing too. Have you ever interrupted two important people discussing very important things – like two high level managers or your parents when you were young? You know that feeling of embarrassment. I felt like in prayer I am interrupting the two most important people in existence and the most important discussion they are having. But they welcome me into the fellowship they are having.
This past week Annie thought that I forgot about Valentine’s Day. But on February 15th I came up to her and said “Happy Day After Valentines Day Honey.” She looked at me like I was strange so I explained to her, “Every other woman is getting treated special on Valentine’s Day, and, I wanted you to feel special and have your own day. So I think from now on we should celebrate the Day After Valentine’s Day.” You might say we didn’t have unity on this one. She wasn’t buying it, and, it doesn’t sound like you guys were either. I don’t think Hallmark makes “Day After Valentine’s Day” cards anyway.
Unity is so important for us as a Church. It cannot be overstated how important it is in the life of the Church, and in the relationships we share. The NT does not have any shortage of passages speaking of unity. For instance, 1st Corinthians 1:10, Paul says, “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” And then again in Ephesians 4:3, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Paul says in Colossians 2:2 that His “purpose is that the churches may be encouraged in heart and united in love…”
Our passage is going to focus only on 4 verses today: 20-23. Three times in this passage Jesus speaks of unity. “Be one” (v21), “be one” (v22), and “brought to complete unity” (v23). Utmost in the prayer of Christ is the unity of those who believe in Him.
Preserved Gospel
Unity is based on all of us believing in the preserved Gospel. Jesus says, “I pray also for those who will [future] believe in me through their message.” The message of the Apostles is the message that has been preserved down through the centuries and is preached even this very morning.
The Gospel is what saves men from hell and saves them to heaven. Romans 1:16 says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” So serious is the preservation of the Gospel that Paul said these words in Galatians 1:8-9, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!”
The Gospel is a message from heaven, it is not from man. When Christ commissioned the Apostles to go and preach the Gospel, He entrusted them with the Gospel. Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:11 that God “entrusted” him with the gospel.
To entrust someone with something means you commit that something to their care. God had put the Gospel into their hands and gave them a trust – He committed the Gospel into their care and the only proper care for the Gospel was to give it as they received it. In other words, Paul, the Apostles, and the Church were to pass on to others what they received without having changed it.
The content of the message is not to be altered. It is to come out of their mouths in the same as it came into their ears. Paul and the Apostles and the faithful in the Church throughout the centuries have guarded the Gospel so that it has been preserved for us today so that we too can hear and believe and be saved. Eternity is at stake in the lives of men when it comes to the preservation and the purity of the Gospel.
Types of Gospel errors. The Social-Activist Gospel, the Cross-Less Gospel, the Therapeutic Gospel.
There is great weight on any man who will stand and speak to men regarding the truth of God in Scriptures. The weight is immense because the accountability is immense. James 3:1 says about men like me, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” Paul also warns men who teach the Word in 2 Timothy2:15, “Do you best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and correctly handles the word of truth.”
You need to pray for me! You need to pray that the Gospel that began with Christ, and then came to the Apostles, and then continued in the Church will be the same Gospel that I continue to preach in my ministry from now to the very end of my ministry. Even more so pray that the ministry of this Church will always be a testimony to men of the true Gospel and have no shame before Christ.
Put yourself to the task of praying for the Gospel to be declared from this Church now and always. Put yourself to the task of praying for the unity of this Church that we would be in unity of pure doctrine and function in unity. Don’t be guilty of dillydallying with prayer.
Pattern for Unity
Another point to note here is our unity with one another is patterned after the unity of God. Jesus says in verse 21, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you..” Then again in verse 22, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one.” We’ve heard this before from Jesus. In John 14:9-10 He said to Philip after Philip asked Him to show them the Father, “Don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father.’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing His work.” The unity between the Father and Jesus Christ is so perfect that to see Jesus is to see the Father. You are not missing out on anything of the Father when you look to His Son Jesus Christ. He is plainly seen and understood when you understand and see Jesus.
What is unity? What does Jesus mean when says, “may they be one” and “may they be brought to complete unity”? There is a positional unity, where we are already united because we are all in Christ by faith. But there is also a functional unity where we function in life and ministry together in unity. In looking at the Scriptures the Church that has unity will prove its unity by having a fellowship characterized by peace and harmony between each other, and love for each other.
Why are these so important? Because the perfect unity of our Triune God displays perfect love and peace and harmony between each person of the Godhead: Father, Son, Spirit. Our Triune God is Unity in Perfection. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one”. There is not division nor fracture in their relationship to each other. Neither the Father, Son, nor Spirit are against each other. Rather, all are in perfect harmony, and share the perfection of unity in their special unique community as the Triune Godhead.
Marriage is a picture of the unity of God…Genesis 1 and 2. It is the responsibility of every spouse to not only want unity preserve unity, but, to promote it. In the same way, in the Church, it is your responsibility and mine to not only protect unity, but, to promote it in the Body of Christ. Ephesians 4:3 says, “Make EVERY EFFORT to keep the unity…” Each member of the Church is to be a proactive agent of unity; which means we are all to be a cause of unity; you and I are actually ordered to be an obstacle to disunity in the Church. Unity is in the image of God and disunity is in the image of the devil. What image are you?
The divine expectation of and the divine work within the Church is a divine unity. Romans 15:5 says, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and with one mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
There is upon each member of the Church, upon each member of Christ, the need to evaluate oneself and ask “Am I a unity maker, or, am I a unity breaker?” “Am I someone who promotes unity and harmony, or, am I someone who creates disunity, division, and dissension?” If you are the former, you work with God, but, if you are the latter you position yourself against God.
Unity is not on accident. Unity in the Church is not “natural”. What is natural is division. We are naturally sinners and the nature of sin and the work of Satan is to create division. Human beings do not need much to make them want to divide. Our nature causes us to be far too ready for pitting ourselves against each other.
I saw an example of this a couple of days ago. Out on the playground with the family and 4 boys were playing tag. They were having a good time…argument over “tag-backs”. I overheard them discussing the 30-second rule that after someone tagged you and you were it, you couldn’t tag them back until 30 seconds had passed. …after a couple minutes two of them walked away together and the other two just watched them. They went from having fun and playing together to divided and hostile in a single moment and over a stupid reason. They took sides, they taunted each other, they yelled insults, they watched each other with a suspicious eye…it was ridiculous. That’s how kids play on a playground and it’s ridiculous that adults play the same way in the Church.
Unity is broken over the stupidest reasons. Division and Disunity are natural, Unity is intentional, requires effort, and is accomplished supernaturally.
It is unnatural. Actually it is supernatural. It is achieved and preserved by the Holy Spirit working in people who have set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Unity is not natural.
Same Position
Unity is also based on the fact that we who have believed the message of the Gospel have the same position. We have the same position before God. That position is 1) in Christ His Son as members of His Body, and 2) a justified position. Justified means that we are declared innocent in God’s sight. We are not seen as guilty but rather we are treated as not guilty. From God’s perspective, a man who has trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins has had his sins cleared and that man - in the eyes of God Almighty - is seen as if he never committed any sin. That man who puts his trust in Jesus Christ is seen as if is of the same righteousness as Jesus Christ even though he is not. That is because that man is now joined to Christ by faith and all of the righteous perfection of Christ is credited to that man – that man did not achieve it. It is a gift to him resulting only from his faith – not from works.
We have unity because all of us have a new and justified position in Christ
Promotes Evangelism
Another point is that Unity promotes evangelism. Twice Jesus says that if the Church is one then the world will know who Christ is. First He says in verse 21, “May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Then in verse 23 He says again, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Unity is visible evangelism. If the world will see the harmonious, loving unity of the Church it is the visible picture to the world of the message that they hear preached. The Gospel, preached by the Church, is the exclusive way for man to be united with God in a right relationship. When they see the Church, who has entered into that relationship with God, living in right relationships with each other, overcoming the obstacles that cause division, then they will see that God is in the Church.
Your testimony of Jesus Christ to this world is indeed related to the quality of unity you experience in your relationships. John 13:34-35, Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Realize that unity is born of heavenly love for people on earth. But what really strikes me is that our Lord expects the Church -Christians - to be the means by which He projects the truth to the world. It is the Church who has been entrusted with the Gospel, not Civil government is not the means.
Prayer Increases Unity
Prayer weaves us together into a deeper unity that nothing else can. Look at Jesus praying to the Father in this chapter. It is a natural expression of the unity with Him. It will be a natural expression of our unity with Him. A united church prays. A divided church will not pray. A prayerless church is a divided church.
I’ve been seeing new things in prayer over the past month. I want to share them with you. One thing I’ve seen is that my motivation to pray is changing from checking something off of my to do list and is becoming more and more of a live engagement with God. If I don’t pray my regret is not that I didn’t “get something done”, but, that I really missed that time with the Father and the Son.
There is another thing too. Have you ever interrupted two important people discussing very important things – like two high level managers or your parents when you were young? You know that feeling of embarrassment. I felt like in prayer I am interrupting the two most important people in existence and the most important discussion they are having. But they welcome me into the fellowship they are having.
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