Brought to Complete Unity

Today we bring our Closing Statements Sermon series to a close. We have spent two months in John 13-17 which are all things Jesus said on the night he was arrested and about to be crucified. Each week of this series, we have taken something Jesus said in these closing statements and shown how it re-emphasizes things he said in his opening statements (which we know as the Sermon on the Mount) and how these are the same things Jesus emphasized throughout his entire ministry. If you want to see the things Jesus deemed most important in his ministry, then I think the bookends of the Sermon on the Mount and these Closing Statements are a great place to look. I have come to appreciate these closing statements even more after having spent two months looking at them. One of the things you may have noticed, and that many of you have commented on, is that this has been almost straight Bible teaching versus preaching. This has been intentional. I wanted us to spend time in these texts really processing and understanding what Jesus is saying here. 

Last week, we talked about the last thing Jesus did before being arrested: pray. He actually prayed twice—once to conclude these closing statements, then by himself in the Garden of Gethsemane to pray ready himself for what was about to happen. I told you last week that WHAT Jesus prayed is not as important as the fact that he prayed and modeled this behavior for his disciples. The two things Jesus actually modeled for his disciples in these closing statements are SERVANT LEADERSHIP by washing his disciples feet and PRAYER. I think we need to sit up and take notice of these two things in our life, as they are so important that Jesus began and ended his closing statements modeling these two crucial practices for his followers. 

Today as we finish, I want us to look at WHAT Jesus prayed because it is important, too. His prayer is really broken into three parts, and we will look at all three.

• The first is where Jesus prays for himself. Perhaps many of us fail to pray for ourselves because we feel it selfish to do so. Now, it can be if we are not careful. Were we to pray for God to bless ourselves, or give us material things, or to hurt our enemies, then it could be—but Jesus is coming to the end of his time on earth and is preparing to do the last thing God has asked him to do, the salvific work on the cross. He knows what is in front of him and he needs strength. He wants his followers to know where his strength comes from and where they can find strength in their lives as well. I am reminded of the Psalmist in Psalm 121 where he writes I LIFT MY EYES UP TO THE HILLS, FROM WHERE DOES MY HELP COME? MY HELP COMES FROM THE LORD WHO MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH. Jesus needs help. He needs strength. And he lifts his eyes to heaven and turns to God. We can, too. He modeled for us where we can find help and strength in times of trouble. Too often, God is the last ditch effort when we are at the end of our rope—AND HEAR ME, GOD IS THERE! However, God is there on the front end as well, wanting to give us what we need to sustain us during difficult times.
  
  One more thing I want to note on this first part before moving on. Jesus talks about his salvific work on the cross as the critically important work he is asked to do “SO THAT PEOPLE MIGHT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.” This eternal life is so people may know God and know God’s son. Too often we look at eternal life as life that goes on forever. In other words, we look at eternal life as a quantity of life: life forever. I will tell you this, though, life that goes on forever is not necessarily a good thing. A life of misery lived out into eternity is misery. That is HELL, NOT HEAVEN. Jesus says this eternal life is a life lived with intimate knowledge of the one true God and the Son, Jesus. Jesus talked about eternal life in terms of QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY.
  
  
• The second thing Jesus prayed for was his disciples, those who would continue the work he began. He prayed they would have strength for what was to come. Jesus knew this would be tough on them. Many times he referred to how they would be scattered when something happened to him. He knew they would be crushed by his arrest and death. He also knew there was critically important work for them just on the horizon and they needed to have the strength to do it.
  
  I love one specific line in his prayer where he said: MY PRAYER IS NOT THAT YOU TAKE THEM OUT OF THE WORLD BUT THAT YOU PROTECT THEM FROM THE EVIL ONE. Jesus did not ask for his disciples to be taken out of a divisive and dangerous environment. Jesus knew they had a mission to carry out and must remain faithful in executing it. He did ask for protection for them as they did this work, though.
  
  
• Then we come to the final act of Jesus’s prayer in front of his disciples. This was the final thing he wanted to leave them with as his work was about to shift to the cross. This is where our text for today focuses. He began the prayer by saying, I DON’T JUST PRAY FOR THOSE WHO FOLLOW ME NOW BUT FOR ALL WHO WILL BELIEVE IN ME IN THE FUTURE. Jesus was looking ahead to his church. He was looking to us, and to the church we will leave for the next generation and the generation after that as we continue Jesus’s work in the world. And what did he pray for us? What is the last closing statement Jesus made before turning to the work on the cross? What was the last thing Jesus wanted to communicate that I alluded would be challenging for us as we finish our series today?
  
  Jesus prayed that WE MAY BE ONE so that WE MAY BE BROUGHT INTO COMPLETE UNITY. His prayer for us, the last thing that he said publicly before he arrest, the final thing to leave his followers with, which I would say is arguably THE MOST IMPORTANT THING HE WANTS THEM TO REMEMBER, WAS TO STAY TOGETHER AS ONE, TO BE IN COMPLETE UNITY.
  
  Listen to how he explained it. Jesus said to his Heavenly Father that: 
• You and I are one and you are in me and I am in you 
• Now I want them to be ONE so that I can be in them and you in me. When that happens, there is UNITY.

So let's take the opposite of this statement for a minute. To look at the opposite of this statement would be to look where his followers are not one, are not in unity. When that is the case, it means that JESUS IS NOT IN IT. Because when Jesus is in it, and God is in Jesus, then it will bring unity to the body. 

How do we interpret the divisiveness and disunity we see in the world today and in the church especially in light of what Jesus says? To me, I think it is quite clear: JESUS IS NOT IN IT. 

When we engage in hateful and hurtful and demeaning talk that creates an us and them in so many different ways: JESUS IS NOT IN IT. 

This does not mean we have to agree on everything. Truthfully, it doesn’t mean we have to agree on anything, but Jesus and the mission of the church. It simply means we value the unity of the body of Christ more than we value our perspective. 

I will tell you something I have come to realize and I think it is important and I think it is worth you knowing because it impacts you. I have come to realize that perhaps the greatest strength of our church is our ability to stay UNITED and stay FOCUSED on our mission when everything around us is so divisive and is actively working to divide us. In this room right now we have persons who are actively supporting Donald Trump for President and those who are actively supporting Kamala Harris. We have persons who support gay marriage and those who support a more traditional understanding of marriage. We have persons who fall on both sides of just about any issue we could throw out… just as the church for most of its existence has had until recently, when churches have felt they have had to be more homogenous in thought with the church they attend, whether that be conservative or progressive. 

This church is diverse and we are modeling to the world a way to stay united with the forces of the world seeking to pull us apart. We are showing the world this unity that Jesus prayed for. We can disagree and still be the church together. We can disagree and still love Jesus. We can disagree and still live out the mission Jesus has given us. 

In a minute, pastor Steve is going to lead us in a prayer for Christian Unity. As we prepare for him to do that, be ready to pray for yourself in the work God is calling each of us to around unity. Pray for this church that we can continue to model what it is to live together in our differences. And pray for the church universal, the church of Jesus which spans countries and cultures and denominations. May we find a way to come together as one so that Christ may be in us, and so the world can see Jesus.

Thanks be to God
AMEN