In Exodus 28:29, we read that Aaron, the high priest, was
required to come before God wearing the special breastplate which had been
crafted for his use, inscribed with “the names of the sons of Israel … over
his heart when he enters the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord
continually.” We have a high priest who is greater than Aaron. Our High Priest
is the Lord Jesus Himself. In John 17, we have a prayer that we refer to as the
High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. Here we find Him interceding for His disciples –
not only for the eleven original faithful disciples but, as verse 20 says, “for
those also who believe in Me through their word.” God the Son, our High Priest,
comes before God the Father, bearing the names of those whom He has redeemed
upon His heart to intercede for us before the eternal throne of grace.[1]
For several weeks we have considered what He prays for
during this prayer. We come now to a petition that is so close to His heart
that He prays not once, nor even twice, but three times in this chapter. This
petition is repeated in verses 11, 21, and 22. As Rainsford writes, “He was
willing to ask the best things for them, and He merited that they should obtain
any blessing He might be pleased to demand for them of His Father. Yet He doth
not ask for worldly riches, nor long life, nor great influence; … He doth not
ask that they should be exempt from trial, and difficulties, and temptations,
and disappointments.”[2] So
what does He ask for so repeatedly in this magnificent prayer? He prays that they
“may be one.” His great longing and desire to see His followers, His church,
stand together in unity.
As we look at these few verses today, we will examine three
components of this prayer for unity in the church. He prays about the pattern
of our unity, the basis of our unity, and the result of our unity. It is
fitting, and entirely in the sovereign providence of God, that we take up this
text on a Communion Sunday, for when we come to the Lord’s Table and take the
bread and the cup, we are celebrating our union with Christ and with one
another. We drink one cup and eat one bread as a testimony to being one body
under the headship of one Lord. But even as we celebrate this truth, we also
recognize that our unity is often flawed and imperfect, coming short of what
the Lord Jesus has prayed for us to experience and manifest. So, in the Word
set before us today, let us also be prayerful that we might “be perfected in
unity” as Jesus prays in verse 23. Let us follow the pattern, stand on the
basis, and see the results of this unity for which our High Priest has prayed
for us.
I. The pattern of our unity.
When instructions were given in the Law for the building of
the Tabernacle, the Lord said that it must be constructed “according to all
that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern
of all its furniture, just so you
shall construct it” (Ex 25:9). Had God simply told His people to build for Him
a sanctuary where He would dwell among them and meet with them, it could have
taken any shape imaginable. But He did not leave the design up to the
imaginations of men; He gave them a precise pattern of what this place was to
look like. In a similar way, when Jesus says that His prayer for His people is
that they may be one, there are many
ways that we could interpret and imagine this sort of unity. But, as with the
Tabernacle, Jesus provides us with a pattern for our unity. It is not to look
as we envision or imagine it, but as He has designed it and prayed for it to
be.
The pattern for our unity in the church is the unity that is
found in God Himself. Jesus prays in verse 21, “that they may all be one, even
as You, Father, are in Me and I in You.” Again in verses 22-23, He prays, “that
they may be one, just as we are One; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be
perfected in unity.” So the unity for which Jesus prays is one that is
patterned after the unity of God Himself – our Triune God who is One God,
existing eternally, indivisibly, and concurrently as three distinct Persons:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When God acts in the world, it is an act of all
three Persons of the Godhead. Jesus says that the Father is in Him, and He is
in the Father, and in John 10 He says that He and the Father are One. In John 5,
as Jesus was fielding accusations that He had violated the Sabbath by healing a
lame man, He attested that He does the work of the Father, and that the Father
has given Him the work that He is to do. He claimed “to have the same
authority, purpose, power, honor, will, and nature as the Father.”[3]
Again, in John 14:10, Jesus says that this unity is so thorough, that His words
and deeds are actually those of the Father. The Father, and the Son, and the
Spirit have unique roles and responsibilities in creation, redemption,
providence, consummation and judgment, but each One operates in perfect harmony
with the other, acting as the One God who He is. No Person of the Trinity is
more or less important than the other, and none of the roles or works of Father,
Son or Spirit is any less significant than any other. But as Father, Son, and
Spirit work in unified harmony in the world, God’s work is done as only He can
do it.
There is, of course, a sense in which we – finite and fallen
human beings – can never attain to the kind of unity that exists within the
perfect self of the Triune God. But Jesus is praying that even our imperfect
unity will be perfected (v23)
according to the pattern of God Himself. This means that we come to see one
another in terms of our identity in Jesus Christ. As Jesus says in verse 21,
“that they also may be in Us,” and in verse 23, “I in them.” We need to view
one another as equals before God because of our position in Christ. Just as
there are distinctions and diversity among the Persons of the Trinity, so there
will be distinctions and diversity among us. But this diversity ensures that
where one lacks gifts, another has them; where one is weak, another is strong. We
are not called to a uniformity in which we are all cookie-cutter clones of one
another, but a unity in which we are all uniquely being shaped into the
likeness of Christ in ways that complement one another. We will have different
roles and different responsibilities, but when we work together in a unified
way, we will advance the work of God together in the world.
Nowhere is this kind of unity more thoroughly described than
in the second chapter of Philippians. There Paul says,
Therefore if there is any
encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is
any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,
make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same
love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from
selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one
another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for
your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. (Php 2:1-4)
As we consider one another in this way, we will see the
beauty of unity that can only arise in right relationship with God, and which
reflects the pattern of His own unity.
II. The basis of our unity.
Unity is important, but it is not ultimate. If all we had
was Jesus praying that His followers might be one, we might be tempted to think
unity was ultimate. But, in all of His prayers for unity, He mentions the
foundation of this unity. It is never unity for unity’s sake, or unity around
the issue of unity. This has been the flaw of many ecumenical movements in the
history of Christianity. Surely, it is admirable to seek to unite Christians as
one body in the world, and much of the division we see among denominations and
movements in Christianity break God’s heart. But in so many of the attempts to
unite the global Church of Jesus Christ over the centuries, the strategy has
been to remove all that divides us from the discussion in order to unite us
around nothing more than unity. A unified church is like a towering skyscraper
for Christ in the world. But like all skyscrapers, it has to be built on a firm
foundation. Unity itself is no foundation. There are divisions in the church,
and there always will be. Some of those divisions are over issues that really
matter. To remove them from the table in the name of unity is to build on
shifting sand. Christ has given us a rock-solid foundation on which to build a
unified church. Like the solid and stable structure of a three-legged stool,
our unity is here described in terms of a three-fold basis on which it rests.
Think of them like the legs of a stool.
First, a church can only be unified as it rests upon the
common confession of faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus says that this prayer is for
“those … who believe in Me.” Simply put, there is no unity to be found where
there is not this common faith in Christ. Where there is this common faith,
there can be unity that transcends every other aspect of life: ethnicity,
generation, gender, socioeconomics, education, and so on. This is why the
church in our day must be mobilized as a testifying force in a fragmented
world. For 50 years, Immanuel has been a pioneer as a church for all people,
and the larger Christian community has still not caught up with where Immanuel
was a half-century ago. People come in here and wonder how it is that young and
old, rich and poor, and people of all ethnicities, can be united in the
fellowship of a single church. The answer is simple: the Gospel of Jesus Christ
has torn down all the barriers that might threaten to divide us. If we are one
body, it is only because we are one body in Him. It is also the case that many
of the divisions between Christian movements, churches, and denominations, and
within many churches, the root cause is that there are some involved who have
not been genuinely born again by faith in Jesus. Satan wreaks havoc on a church
and a Christian movement by planting unregenerate unbelievers in the midst of
it, and where that is the case, there is always a threat to unity. For a church
to be unified, there must be a common confession of faith in Jesus Christ.
The second leg that we find to this basis of unity is the
Word of God. Jesus said that He is praying for those “who believe in Him
through their word.” Who are the “they” of “their word”? They are His apostles, the ones whom He chose to complete the written
revelation of the Word of God that we have in the New Testament. He gave the
Word to them (v8), and He will give the Spirit to them, that they might be able
to write the inspired revelation of God’s Word for us (14:26 ;16:12-14). Our
unity in the church must have a common foundation of confidence in the Bible as
the Word of God. We cannot stand together under the Lordship of Christ if we
are not in agreement about who He is, what He has said, what He has done, and
what He has called us to do in the world. Those things, and much more, are
disclosed to us in the Scriptures. As Carson
writes, our unity is “a unity predicated on adherence to the revelation of the
Father mediated to the first disciples through His Son, the revelation they
accepted (vv6, 8), and then passed on” to us.[4]
Where there is disunity in the church, there is an obvious malfunction in our
understanding, our confidence, or our conviction in God’s truth. To be unified,
we must stand together on that firm foundation that is laid for our faith in
His excellent Word.
The third leg of this unity that Jesus mentions in His
prayer is that of His own glory. In verse 22, Jesus says, “The glory which You
have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one.” So unity somehow
grows out of the glory of Christ. Glory speaks of God’s nature, or in this
sense, Christ’s nature – His character and person. He is the radiance of the
Father’s glory, as Hebrews says. As God’s glory was present, at work, and on
display in Christ in the world, so now His glory is manifested in the lives of
His people. Christ, in calling us to know and serve Him, has given us His
glory. But just as Jesus’ glory was ultimately displayed in His self-sacrifice,
so the glory of God will be seen most clearly in the lives of His people as we
lay ourselves down in sacrificial service to one another and to the world. God
promised through Jeremiah that He would gather a people together for Himself,
and give them “one heart and one way,” or as another translation has it,
“singleness of heart and action” (Jer 32:39, NASB, NIV). As we become
increasingly aware that we are the people through which God seeks to make His
glory and the glory of His Son known in the world, we will unite together and
labor together toward this aim. Let us ask ourselves, how would our lives look
different if we lived in such a way to make the glory of God-in-Christ known
through our service to Him and our relationships with our brothers and sisters
in the Church? How would our church look different if our singular aim was
making the glory of God-in-Christ manifest in this community and to the ends of
the earth? Where other aims and other pursuits enter into a church, division
ensues because everyone has their own idea of what our priorities and
activities ought to be. But where we can agree together that, whatever we do,
whatever we desire, and whatever we decide, our singular aim is to make the
glory of God-in-Christ known, there is a great unity that will arise in our
fellowship that will be unmistakably evident to all.
So, our unity is to be a unity that rests upon this
three-legged stool, as it were: a basis consisting of a common confession that
Christ is Savior and Lord; a common conviction that His Word is truth; and a
common commitment to pursue and demonstrate His glory in and through our lives
individually and together as the church.
This brings us to the final element of Jesus prayer for the
unity of His people …
III. The results of our unity.
Why should we, as a church, pursue unity? Why should we take
threats against it seriously? Why should we be concerned if it is lacking?
First we should say that unity is not an end unto itself. Remember, it is
important, but it is not ultimate. We do not pursue it apart from the
three-fold basis we have just outlined. But we also do not pursue it apart from
a passionate desire to see the results that Jesus prayed would come from our
unity. The aim is not to have unity for unity’s sake, but unity for the sake of
our global mission.
In verse 21, Jesus prayed that His followers “may all be one
… so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” For reasons we will only
understand in heaven, Jesus Christ has chosen to anchor the world’s perception
of His claims on the unity of His church. That is mind-boggling. How will the
world become convinced that He is who He says He is – the One who was sent by
the Father to redeem the world? The church will prove it, not through
argumentation, but through a demonstration of unity.
He goes further in verse 23, praying that His people “may be
one … so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You
have loved Me.” The claim of the Christian church is that we who follow Jesus
have been adopted into the family of God as sons and daughters through our faith
in Him. We claim that we are the special objects of God’s love, unequaled by
any affection other than the love of the Father for the Son. We tell the world
that they can experience God’s love in this way too, if they will come to call
upon Christ to save them. But Jesus says here that if we are not unified, the
world will never believe our testimony. An absence of unity in the church will
undermine, not only our witness, but the integrity of His own claims in the
world.
We all know people, I imagine, who once professed to be
followers of Christ and were active in their churches, but who today have
drifted away from Christ and His Church. Surely among those we know, there are
many who would say that the reason they turned their backs on the Lord and the church
is because of the turmoil that they witnessed and experienced in the church. We
also know people who have never professed Christ who, when we witness to them,
are quick to throw in our faces the failures and follies of some church they
have known about. Friends, we have to come to grips with the fact that when the
world judges Christ and the church on the basis of our failures, it is because
Jesus Himself has given them the right to do so. He said that the world’s
belief in Him, and the world’s belief in our claim to be God’s specially loved
people would be based on the unity that they see in us.
Because we are God’s sons and daughters that have been
adopted into His family, brothers and sisters to one another, we have to take
the bond of family unity seriously. Because we believe that Jesus is mighty
save, that salvation is His free gift, and that heaven and hell are real places
where real people go for a real eternity, we must take unity seriously. A short
time ago, we adopted a “conflict resolution policy” here at Immanuel, and
several people asked why it was necessary. They asked if we were trying to
force people to comply with things they didn’t agree with, or demand uniformity
or silence. No friends, there is a time for disagreements, room for diversity
of opinions, and freedom to agree to disagree. But the policy was put into
place so that we can address, confront, and protect the unity of the church in
a way that honors Christ and protects the witness of this church for Christ in
the community and the world. But that policy can only do so much. It comes down
to a daily determination on the part of each of us that we will humble
ourselves and elevate our brothers and sisters and serve them, that we will
unite with one another on the basis of God’s word, faith in Christ, and a
commitment to pursue His glory, that the world will believe and know who Christ
is and who we are as His people.
Do you know what will impress the world about the church? It
will not be our size, our prosperity, or our sense of self-importance. It will
be, according to the prayer and promise of Jesus, the unity that the world sees
among the members of His Church who stand together by faith in Him, upon His
word, committed to serving one another and the world for His glory.
In the second century, Tertullian wrote a defense of the
Christian faith to a culture that despised the church. He said,
We are a body knit together as such
by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a
common hope. … But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to
put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another, for they
themselves are animated by mutual hatred. See, they say about us, how they are
ready even to die for one another, for they themselves would sooner kill.
What impressed the world in that day is what will impress
the world in our day. Let the world look upon the church and see unity, and say
of us as was said of the church centuries ago: “See how they love one another.”
[1] Marcus
Rainsford, Our Lord Prays for His Own (Chicago:
Moody, 1950), 372.
[2] Ibid.,
372.
[3] John
MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament
Commentary: John 12-31 (Chicago :
Moody, 2008), 290.
[4] D. A.
Carson, The Gospel According to John (Pillar
New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 568.
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