SERMON: “Prayer for True Unity” (John 17:20–23)
“Prayer
for True Unity” (John 17:20–23)
Series: “John: Life in Christ’s Name” #94 Text: John 17:20–23
By: Shaun Marksbury Date: November
24, 2024
Venue: Living Water Baptist Church Occasion: AM Service
I.
Introduction
By God’s grace, we
have a lot of new people joining our church.
Some of them are here this morning, and we’re grateful for them. Others have been attending on Sunday
evenings. Lord willing, because of the circumstances
of one particular group of believers from a local church, we’ll see many more
faces next Sunday morning, which is why we’re holding a special reception that
day.
It’s fitting that,
in the providence of God, we should be considering a passage on unity this
morning. Some wonder about whether unity
is just about creating a wide enough tent to include everyone; this was the
approach of the ecumenical movement.
That seems to be better than certain hyper-fundamentalists who seem to
want everyone out of the kingdom of God except a select few. However, biblically-speaking, we see that
true unity comes in Jesus Christ. We
should seek to avoid shallow compromise and instead strive for the oneness of
the truth, love, and mission of Christ.
We’re seeing facts
about our unity that we should accept and strive to maintain in Christ. We’ll note three points this morning: Our
true unity is Christ’s prayer (vv. 20–21a), our true unity is Christ’s mission
(vv. 21b–23a), and our true unity is Christ’s love (v. 23b). Let’s consider the first of these:
II.
First, Our True Unity is Christ’s Prayer (vv. 20–21a)
I do not ask on behalf of these alone,
but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be
one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us,
Jesus looks beyond
the disciples at this point. They are in
His immediate presence, but there will be others soon who come to faith through
their testimony. This not only includes
those who we see on Pentecost in the Book of Acts, but also every believer
throughout church history.
Note the importance
Christ places on belief. We’ve noted the
importance of divine election in this passage, of those the Father has given to
the Son. Yet, it’s belief that’s the
indicator of those who are His.
It’s not just
general belief. Understand that
salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone. Galatians 2:16 says that “a
man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus,
even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in
Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh
will be justified.” It’s not through the
keeping of the Law or good works that we are saved, but through faith in
Christ.
It is through the
word of the apostles that we come to believe.
As Matthew Henry notes, “It follows, that God is, strictly speaking, the
Author of faith, and men are the
ministers by whom we believe, as Paul teaches, (1 Cor. 3:5.)”[1] We
can all be instruments used by God, but this is more specific than that. The word of the apostles is Holy Scripture; belief
comes from hearing the apostolic message (Rom. 10:17). People come to faith through the proclamation
of the apostolic gospel message.
Those who believe
are part of those Christ prays for here.
Jesus intercedes, then, not just for His current disciples, but also for
us as our Great Hight Priest. As one
study notes, “As each high priest of
Israel bore the names of the tribes before the presence of God in the
tabernacle and the temple (cf. Ex. 28:9–12, 21–29), so now Jesus, the great
High Priest, carried future believers into the holy presence of His heavenly
Father (cf. Heb. 4:14–5:12; 7:24–8:2).”[2] We, as believers, are part of those for whom
Christ intercedes.
Now, that means
that we are a people unified in Christ. Christ’s
prayer unifies His present and future disciples. He ensures the success of the apostolic ministry.[3]
Consider how He
prays in v. 21. He prays that “they may
all be one.” This follows the previous
verse, stating what Jesus is asking of the Father. Of course, 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “But the
one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” We have unity
with Christ in the gospel, but we have to see that means we also have a
horizontal unity with all other believers in Christ.
This is not a superficial
or institutional unity, then; it is spiritual one. We are all “baptized into one body, whether
Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one
Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). As one author
notes, “It is not experiential unity, but the unity of common eternal life
shared by all who believe the truth, and it results in the one body of Christ
all sharing His life.”[4] This
is a reality of those in Christ.
So, Christ prays
for unity. He prays that we would be
united to one another like He is united to the Father. Now, that may make you wonder. As another author explains, “Obviously,
believers cannot be one with either the Father or the Son in every way the
persons of the Godhead are one with each other, for we are not God. On the other hand, the unity among Christians
is more than the invisible oneness of all believers; it is something that
demonstrates itself in outward, tangible, loving cooperation for powerful
evangelistic purposes and results.”[5] We
are to have the same unity of mind and focus.
Don’t get too
caught up on the working out of our unity at this point, though. It’s only through the finished work of Christ
that we obtain the spiritual reality of this unity. It is only through what He accomplishes in
our hearts that we have this unity.
Scripture directs
this unity. Let’s embrace this unity by
anchoring ourselves in God’s Word. Our
shared belief in the truth of the gospel forms the bedrock of our oneness in
Christ. That will lead us to the next
point:
III.
Second, Our True Unity is Christ’s Mission (vv.
21b–23a)
so that the world may believe that You
sent Me. The glory which You have given
Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them
and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity,
This is where we can
think of some of the practical truths.
Still, before we dig too deeply into this, we see different aspects of
Christ’s mission here. First, we see
that our unity serves Christ’s goal of evangelism. Second, we see that our unity comes from
Christ and glorifies Him. Third, we see
that our unity is perfected by Christ.
A.
First, we see that our unity serves Christ’s
goal of evangelism (v. 21b).
The purpose of this
unity is clear: “so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” As the Reformation Study Bible notes here, “This
prayer for unity is not merely for a ‘spiritual’ or invisible unity, but for a
unity that is visible to the world, ‘that the world may believe.’ ” When believers live in harmony, reflecting
the love and truth of Christ, the watching world takes notice.
Disunity, on the
other hand, becomes a stumbling block to unbelievers. When they come to a church, for instance, and
different teachers are teaching competing doctrines, that creates a problem for
them to believe in Christ. If our goals are
competing in other ways, that can likewise create issues.
Our mission should
be the same mission Christ has. He said
in v. 8 that “the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they
received them and truly understood
that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” He delivered the truth and the disciples
believed; we should likewise be faithful with the truth about Jesus and that the
Father sent Him for our salvation.
Now, it’s tempting
for churches to think that evangelism is the sum total of the mission. Yet, that is not correct. Let’s consider the next point:
B.
Second, we see that our unity comes from Christ
and glorifies Him (v. 22).
Jesus speaks of
giving His disciples the glory that the Father gave Him. This glory refers to the revelation of God’s
character and love, which Jesus displayed during His earthly ministry; John
says, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John
1:14). Through Christ’s indwelling
Spirit, believers are empowered to reflect this glory, resulting in a unity
that magnifies God’s greatness.[6]
Our goal as
believers should be to bring glory to God.
In 1 Corinthians 10:31, we see the command, “Whether, then, you eat or
drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Our ultimate mission as a church isn’t outward,
or inward; it’s upward. We should seek
to glorify God in all that we do.
Understand that we
are created for this. As one theologian
notes, “Our happiness lies in having the image of God restored and formed anew
in us, which was defaced by sin. Christ
is not only the lively image of God, in so far as he is the eternal Word of
God, but even on his human nature, which he has in common with us, the likeness
of the glory of the Father has been
engraved, so as to form his members to the resemblance of it.”[7] We
are made to glorify Him.
The glory leads to
unity of mission. For instance, we see
our church services as a means of keeping His word. Some churches only preach evangelistic
sermons. Others focus on self-help. We try to preach the whole counsel of God,
however, as a means of bringing Him glory.
Again, though, it’s
not our efforts or works that makes us more unified. We are simply and humbly submitting to the
Word. Instead:
C.
Third, we see that our unity is perfected by
Christ (v. 23a).
We see Jesus
continuing to elaborate on unity here.
He’s already said that the Father is in Him; in John 10:38, He said that
He wanted the people to believe His works, “so that you may know and understand
that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”
This unity is the basis for our unity.
It is in Christ and
through the Holy Spirit that we can have our unity perfected. He says here that He wants “that they may be
perfected in unity.” This is a passive
statement, not an active one; we don’t accomplish it. Rather, it results of the work of God in
Christ in us bringing about this perfection.
In other words, Christ’s mission is to perfect this unity in us.
How does He accomplish
this? He works through His word and His
workers. Consider Ephesians 4:11–13: “And
He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the
equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body
of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs
to the fullness of Christ.” Through the
preaching of His Word through His offices, He creates unity. This is part of the reason the pulpit ministry
is so important.
To be clear, we’re
not talking about a cult of personality.
It’s not about the man in the pulpit; it’s about the message in the
pulpit. It’s the Word of God that Christ
uses to create unity.
True unity is about
a shared commitment to Christ’s mission. Let us strive for a visible, tangible unity
that testifies to the reality of Christ’s transforming power. This can happen as we focus on one other
aspect this morning.
IV.
Third, Our True Unity is Christ’s Love (v. 23b)
so that the world may know that You sent
Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
Here, Jesus reveals
the ultimate motivation for unity: the Father’s love. The love that the Father has for the Son is
the same love He has for us — a truth that is both staggering and humbling. The world sees this love and comes to faith
as a result.
We’ve mentioned that
last point already, that this is part of Christ’s mission. Yet, it’s important to see that emphasis here
on love in evangelism. For instance,
Christians are called to be “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in
all aspects into Him who is the head,
even Christ” (Eph. 4:15). If we are just bluntly telling people the
truth without regard for the souls of the lost or our relationships with fellow
believers, then we have missed an important part of our unity.
The church is
united not merely by doctrine; it’s united also by love. This love starts with love of God for us,
which we then share with one another. We
must first recognize the particular and redemptive love of God. While God loves the world in general, His love
for believers is unique — it’s a covenantal, saving love that draws us into His
family.
It’s that love that
we share with one another. As Paul
writes, “We are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another”
(Rom. 12:5). This love will be a visible
witness to the world, showing that we are truly disciples of Christ (John
13:35). If the world comes in and
believes that we secretly hate one another because our church is divided into
cliches and no one talks to anyone else, then what kind of witness do we have?
Through the
church’s unity, the world is invited to witness this love and to join in it
through faith in Christ. So, we should seek
to cultivate this unity by loving one another with the self-sacrificing love
that Christ modeled. Such love is the
evidence of true spiritual oneness. It
also provides a powerful testimony to the gospel.
V.
Conclusion
Jesus’s prayer for
unity calls us to reflect the oneness of the Trinity. We start with who the Lord is, His goodness
and His love, and the union the members of the Godhead experience. If we believe wrongly about God, then we
cannot live as He has called us.
Moreover, unless we have the Lord in us through the Spirit, we won’t be
able to live in union with one another nor engage in the mission Christ has.
As we respond to Jesus’s
prayer, by His grace, let’s commit to standing firm in the truth of Scripture,
working together for the sake of the gospel, and loving one another as Christ
has loved us. In doing so, we fulfill Jesus’ vision of a unified church,
glorifying the Father and drawing others to Him. Let’s also pray that this unity, which is
both a gift and a calling, would be evident in our lives and in our church, to
the praise of His glorious name.
[1] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, (Bellingham, WA: Logos
Bible Software, 2010), 2:182–183.
[2] Edwin A. Blum, The
Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, 1985, 2, 333.
[3] John F. MacArthur Jr., John 12–21, MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago, IL: Moody
Publishers, 2008), 288.
[4] John MacArthur Jr., Ed., The MacArthur Study Bible, electronic ed., (Nashville, TN: Word
Pub., 1997), 1619.
[5] Ted Cabal, Chad Owen Brand, E. Ray Clendenen, Paul
Copan, J. P. Moreland, and Doug Powell, The
Apologetics Study Bible: Real Questions, Straight Answers, Stronger Faith,
(Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2007), 1607.
[6] MacArthur, The
MacArthur Study Bible, 1620.
[7] Calvin, 2:184–185.
