WEBVTT 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:20.000 John chapter 17, we're going to be looking at verses 20 to 23, just a small segment of it, to think about the unity of the church. 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:26.879 In his high priestly prayer, Jesus prays, verse 20. 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:39.439 I don't ask for these only, that is the disciples, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:44.880 Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you. 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:51.039 That they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 00:00:52.159 --> 00:00:59.280 The glory that you have given to me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:18.000 I in them, and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me. 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:21.920 So reads the word of the living God. 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:40.319 In an astounding act of heavenly love, a Jewish teacher kneels down to wash the feet of his students. 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:51.120 They had known each other for a couple of years, and still in a shame-honor culture, this was an unthinkable act. 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:53.599 Quite the reversal. 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:55.280 And so the pupil refuses. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:58.159 No, you can't wash my feet. 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:00.560 But the teacher persists. 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:07.359 He grabs a towel and his pupil's sand-covered feet and begins to wash them. 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:15.840 That teacher's name was Seth Postel, who is a Christian faculty member at Israel College of the Bible. 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:19.520 The setting was the school's first graduation ceremony. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:28.960 The timing was a little over ten years ago, just after the Gaza War between Israel and Palestine had claimed over a thousand Arab lives. 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:35.919 The feat that this Israeli teacher washed belonged to an Arab student. 00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:43.199 When the school began, the faculty was not sure if the Arab students would show up. 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:53.039 Understandably, so much deep ethnic division, so much bloodshed, so much violence dividing these two groups. 00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:56.400 How could they study the Word of God together? 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:01.840 Many Arab students even told them after signing up that it was just too risky and they dropped out of the program. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:07.840 And so the faculty prayed and prayed and prayed, and on the first day they showed up. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:10.400 And they stayed and they learned. 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:13.439 And then came their graduation. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:17.360 They learned all about Yeshua together. 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:21.199 And on that graduation day, Seth said. 00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:36.719 All they could say is, look at what the Messiah has done. 00:03:39.680 --> 00:03:43.439 For once, bloodshed had brought them together, not apart. 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:51.919 Since the Tower of Babel, this world that we are in has been divided by many things, including ethnicity. 00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:57.919 So it shouldn't surprise us when we see it even in our day. 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:05.360 Sin seizes on any difference to begin to hate another person, and ethnicity is just another kind of difference. 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:21.040 But I think what has surprised certainly me, maybe you too, is that over the last few years there has been such pronounced revived division, ethnically speaking, in the church. 00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:31.199 In many ways, the rifts go deep and have been there for a long time, but there's a kind of new fissure, a new fracturing in the church. 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:32.639 We see it all over the place. 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:53.360 Barna polls just a couple months ago said that almost half of all of Protestant pastors in the United States, and you know, take this for what it's worth, how Barna figures these things out, but almost half of all Protestant pastors in the United States seriously thought about quitting vocational ministry altogether last year. 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:56.720 And one of the chief reasons is because of division in the church. 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:00.959 That's not your pastors, just to be clear. 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:11.439 Church doors have closed in unprecedented numbers over the last two to three years because of church division. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:29.680 And my guess is that you've seen and felt this personally, whether you're just kind of a timid casual observer on Facebook or social media, and you've seen the fights happening digitally, or if it's been in person and you yourself have been engaged in hard conversations. 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:38.879 You've felt the division that's so pronounced, having to do with race and justice and ethnicity. 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:45.920 And even among Christians, it seems like those conversations do more to promote anger than they do peace. 00:05:49.040 --> 00:06:06.079 So my goal this evening is not to diagnose all of the potential causes for that, what led us to where we are now, but just to observe that the church in America is still reeling from ethnic division. 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:08.720 And it should be heartbreaking for us. 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:14.240 And I think the question we need to ask then is what do we do? 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:16.399 What do we do in the face of that? 00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:18.720 Our church is not immune to this. 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:20.879 How do we respond? 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:26.800 Let me suggest that we do what we always do. 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:33.680 We look up to heaven, we pray for light, and then we look down at our Bibles, and we find it here. 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:46.639 And the Lord's mercy has revealed to us truly in this passage, I don't think it's too strong to say, the cure for all division in the church. 00:06:49.040 --> 00:07:02.399 In the high priestly prayer of Jesus Christ for the everlasting worship of Jesus Christ and the unity of the Church of Jesus Christ, and it's real simple, and it's also pretty complicated. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:06.800 Christ is our unity. 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:11.199 Christ is our unity. 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:18.079 Apart from Christ, what do you have? 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:20.319 Division. 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:24.079 In Christ, unity. 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:39.680 He who has united Jew and Gentile, Israeli and Arab, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free, is still powerful to make his people perfectly one across ethnic lines, cultural lines, and even battle lines. 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:45.920 And I hope you appreciate what I'm saying here. 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:46.959 Well, look at this. 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:49.360 This is not just Christian rhetoric. 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:53.279 This isn't just us talking and saying Christian things because it makes us feel good. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:54.480 No, this is reality. 00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:58.399 This is actually how the church can be one. 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:00.160 Practically. 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:19.680 If we as a church, Emmanuel, would sing together in unbroken, joyful harmony, then we should bend low to listen to our shepherd's voice as he prays to his father and learn what he has to say, which is in summary that Christ is our unity. 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:24.560 As we sing, all other ground is sinking sand. 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:33.519 So the context of John 17 is that it's usually called the high priestly prayer of Jesus. 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:36.879 It's the longest prayer of Jesus recorded in the Bible. 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:43.279 In some ways, it's the most expansive, reaching all the way back to eternity past and all the way to eternity future. 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:45.840 This is Thursday night of Passion Week. 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:47.840 Jesus is about to go to Gethsemane. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:09:00.320 I think probably the prayer happened somewhere on the way to Gethsemane, after the upper room discourse, after the Last Supper, before he's in the garden, weeping and praying, and then before he's arrested and crucified. 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:08.559 And the basic structure of the prayer is that in verses one through five, Jesus prays for himself. 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:18.240 Begins when Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify your son, that the Son may glorify you. 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:22.399 He's focused on his glory in this prayer, and that's where he begins. 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:46.559 But then in verses six through nineteen, he turns the camera lens of his prayer onto his disciples, which should just astound you, that knowing he's about to be arrested and bear the full weight of the wrath of God on the cross, he prays for himself, but has far more words for his people. 00:09:48.960 --> 00:09:51.360 He asks that the Father would keep them. 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:55.360 And then in verse 20, we see this turn. 00:09:55.440 --> 00:10:04.080 Now he's not just praying for the eleven who are left, but for all who will believe. 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:04.879 That's what he says. 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:05.759 Look at verse 20. 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:10.559 I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:16.159 Now, I pretty regularly tell folks in the foundry, you are not in the Bible. 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:17.600 The Bible's not about you. 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:23.840 It's not, you're not a featured character, like after Samson, then Dan, like that's not how that works. 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:30.159 But I think I gotta correct myself because verse 20, we're in the Bible. 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:38.799 If you believe in Jesus through the words of the apostles, which is now here, that's you. 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:42.480 Jesus is praying for you. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:46.080 And his prayers are always effective. 00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:54.399 And it's at the beginning of this third section where we find some of the most precious words in the entirety of Scripture. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:11:04.879 And in summary, Jesus is praying that the Father would unite his own, that he would make them one in him. 00:11:05.679 --> 00:11:06.480 How do I know that? 00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:07.440 Well, he says it twice. 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:08.480 Look at verse 21. 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:13.360 He says, I ask, verse 21, that they may all be one. 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:21.039 Or he says again in verse 22, the glory that you've given me, I have given to them, that they may be one. 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:24.159 So that's the substance of this part of the prayer. 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:34.320 He's going to go on to talk about eschatological glory in the following three verses, but right here he's just focused on the oneness, the unity of the church. 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:48.480 But more specifically than that, he doesn't just say, I want them to kind of get along with each other generally, to have a worldly kind of unity. 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:55.840 He says, Father, would you unite them in me? 00:11:57.679 --> 00:12:01.679 This unity is all about Jesus. 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:13.840 He uses the first person eleven times in these three verses to refer to himself, and twice the first person plural referring to us or we. 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:25.679 So I take that to mean that Jesus prays for our unity to be in him. 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:33.200 That this prayer is how Jesus unites his ethnically divided church. 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:39.519 Jesus is praying that he himself would be our unity. 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.799 And so that's what we're going to look at this evening in three parts. 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:47.679 How, or even why Christ unites us. 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:49.679 Christ unites us. 00:12:49.919 --> 00:12:52.399 I'm going to give you three parts to it up front. 00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:59.279 Christ unites us like himself, Christ unites us in himself, and Christ unites us for himself. 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:08.080 Or if you're from a Southern Baptist background and you like alliterated outlines, the ground of our unity, the gift of our unity, and the goal of our unity. 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:10.159 If you'd prefer that, but I like prepositions. 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:15.519 Christ unites us like himself, in himself, and for himself. 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:20.559 So let's begin by looking how Christ unites us like himself. 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:39.360 What I mean by saying this is that the church's unity is not just some kind of pragmatic marketing scheme by which we win people from outside of the walls of the church because they see that we're very lovey-dovey with each other. 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:50.799 There's something so much more profound to the unity of the church because it finds its proper root and fountain in the unity of the Godhead. 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:57.519 Or you could say it this way: our unity is grounded in God's tri-unity. 00:13:58.240 --> 00:13:59.919 Look at verse 21. 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:10.159 He says, I ask that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you. 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:15.919 Or if that's not clear enough, go to verse 22. 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:25.919 The glory that you have given me, I have given to them that they may be one, and it's the same word as just as, even as we are one. 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:33.519 God's tri-unity is the ground of our unity. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:39.120 Monotheism is so fundamental to the Bible, isn't it? 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:40.639 We have one God. 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:45.919 Hero Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:50.320 We do not have three gods, we don't have a pantheon of gods, we just got one. 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:53.600 The one who made everything and the one who rules. 00:14:53.840 --> 00:15:05.919 And yet, progressively through the Bible, this one God reveals himself as three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, each equally God, one in essence and being three in person. 00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:08.720 That's what we call the Trinity. 00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:13.600 And I think it's astounding Jesus' economy of words. 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:16.960 He captures that all in three little words. 00:15:17.039 --> 00:15:18.159 Look at verse 22. 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:20.799 Even as we are one. 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:24.480 Just think about that for a second. 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:26.080 We are not one. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:28.000 That's we is plural. 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:29.840 One is singular. 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:32.639 And yet it is. 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:44.080 And he prays that the unity of all believers would be just as the oneness of the Trinity. 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:55.759 So, in order to understand how Jesus wants us to be united, we need to understand how God himself is united. 00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:58.879 How the Trinity has always been one. 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:12.000 To be one in the most fundamental sense means that two persons have a single shared life between them. 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:17.759 We get this in the illustrations that the Lord gives us in Providence, marriage. 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:19.440 The two become one. 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:21.120 You start sharing a life. 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:27.120 You maintain your distinction as a person and yet you share a life together in a sense. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:33.039 Or the Bible also uses the branches of a tree that are connected to the vine. 00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:37.600 They're different from the vine, and yet they're connected to the life of the vine. 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:41.600 Oneness means having a shared life or fellowship. 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:49.200 Now, of course, there's lots of all kinds of really bad, unhelpful metaphors having to do with the Trinity, and I'm sure that you've heard of them, right? 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:51.840 Trinity is like water, it's three phases, or whatever. 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:54.080 The Trinity is like an egg and the shell and the yoga. 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:59.039 They're all of them break down at some point and they're unhelpful to a certain degree. 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:08.079 I think better to just say that in the Godhead is one life, one essence possessed fully by each person. 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:15.519 The Father is totally love, totally justice, totally mercy, totally goodness, and so is the Son, and so is the Spirit. 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:20.000 Each person of the Trinity fully possesses all attributes of God. 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:25.920 But the Bible tells us that oneness actually even goes further than that. 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:31.759 Not just three sharing one being, but who never interact with each other. 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:36.640 The implication of their sharing that one being is that they are involved with each other. 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:39.839 That's the way that Jesus says it here in verse 21. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:43.839 Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you. 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:49.359 There's a mutual indwelling in the Trinity. 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:55.279 And turn just a couple chapters back to John 14, the Upper Room Discourse. 00:17:55.359 --> 00:17:58.960 I just want you to see how Jesus himself talks about this oneness with the Father. 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:00.240 There's lots of examples of this. 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:01.440 This is just one passage. 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:08.400 John 14, Philip says, this is 14, verse 8, Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father and it's enough for us. 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:14.000 And Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and you still don't know me, Philip? 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:18.160 Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:20.480 How can you say, Show us the Father? 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:25.279 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? 00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:26.880 So what are the implications of that? 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:27.920 Here he goes. 00:18:28.160 --> 00:18:35.440 The words that I say to you, I don't speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:41.440 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:47.839 So Jesus does works, the Father's doing works, Jesus speaks words, the Father's speaking words. 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:50.880 That's the implication of this. 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:53.200 It's shared life in the fullest sense. 00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:55.279 Attributes, action. 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:03.519 Now, how then is Christian unity like that? 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:07.279 Like the tri-unity of the Godhead? 00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:08.480 In what way? 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:12.079 Well, we have shared life. 00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:13.839 It's not identical. 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:16.720 This is a comparison word, just as. 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:18.160 It's not equal to. 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:22.000 But it's something like that. 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:39.119 The unity that we experience, that Jesus prays for in the church, which we'll talk in a moment about how we get it, is that every believer would fully share the same heart and mind, leading to the same kind of action. 00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:46.559 Think of it this way: if you cut an apple, you open it up, it's just all apple inside. 00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:51.279 If you cut a Christian and you peel them open, what do you get? 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:52.319 Unity. 00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:53.920 Shared life. 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:55.119 That's what's inside. 00:19:55.279 --> 00:19:58.480 That's the characteristic of the Christian. 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:09.359 Paul writes in Philippians 2, then practically, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:12.240 That's what Christian unity looks like. 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:19.839 It looks like having a shared life together that works itself out in how we feel and think and do. 00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:27.119 And this is so different from worldly unity. 00:20:27.839 --> 00:20:31.440 Because worldly unity is all external, isn't it? 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:41.440 It's just about doing the same things together or being geographically in the same space or liking the same sports team or who knows. 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:43.200 It's all external. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:48.160 But this is a spiritual, internal unity. 00:20:49.759 --> 00:21:01.119 Last night I was building a Lego car with my son Danielito, who's four, and we had very different motives for approaching the same task. 00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:05.200 Mine was that I was kind of just reliving my childhood, and it was pretty great. 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:06.240 I loved it. 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:18.160 His was if I don't remind Poppy that it's actually past my bedtime, then we can keep going as long as this takes. 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:21.440 And it took a while. 00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:26.400 So we were doing the same thing, but we have very different motives. 00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:29.599 That's the way that unity is in the world. 00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:39.119 You can participate in basically the same activities, but down in the heart of the thing, it's all selfishness. 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:40.960 It's all self interest. 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:42.640 They're not the same motive. 00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:45.680 They're not working toward the same goal ultimately. 00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:52.000 That's why we in the church would say we don't have unity with the world. 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:54.640 Because we don't have the same motives. 00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:56.799 We don't have the same life. 00:21:57.039 --> 00:21:59.839 We have a different life than the life of the world. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.200 We have a new life that is in Christ. 00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:10.480 So Christ unites us like himself. 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:16.799 Secondly, Christ unites us in himself. 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:18.559 In himself. 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:32.079 If it's true that God's tri-unity is the pattern and mold for our unity, then Christ's indwelling in believers by the Spirit is the means of us getting that unity. 00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:40.640 The way that we become united is by Jesus joining himself to us, becoming in union with us. 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:47.839 Jesus takes the eternal unity of the Trinity and makes it internal to us. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:49.839 That's what he says in verse 21. 00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:59.839 He says that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you. 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:07.039 Then he goes on to say that they also may be in us. 00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:13.839 Or verse 23, after saying that they may be one even as we are one, he says, I in them and you in me. 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:19.359 Now, probably when you first read that, you just kind of glaze over it because there's a lot of people, you know, back and forth. 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:21.680 I can't remember who's in who at this point. 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:26.720 But just slow down for a second and appreciate what's actually being said here. 00:23:27.119 --> 00:23:32.000 Jesus is praying about our unity not just in comparative terms. 00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:37.200 He's not just saying the unity of the church is kind of like the unity of the Trinity. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:50.880 He's saying that he actually accomplishes this unity by uniting us to the Trinity through indwelling. 00:23:52.319 --> 00:23:59.839 He just promised in chapters 14 through 16 to send his Spirit, He who was with you, will be in you. 00:24:01.759 --> 00:24:11.599 And now here he's praying for that very reality that the Spirit would come, indwell believers, and in so doing unite those believers to Jesus Christ. 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:14.880 This is what we call the doctrine of union with Christ. 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:19.680 It is a spiritual union, as it is in the Trinity. 00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:25.119 It's not like spatial, like we don't just have union because we happen to be in the same room. 00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:27.039 It's a complete union. 00:24:27.119 --> 00:24:28.799 It's not just you get a part of him. 00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:31.200 It's a reciprocal union. 00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:33.440 It says he is in us and we are in him. 00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:38.400 And it's also, and this is critical distinction, an invisible union. 00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:42.240 You don't see it immediately. 00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:49.839 There's not like a magical tether running between all of us that if you turn on a black light, somehow you could see it. 00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:51.519 That's not how that works. 00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:52.799 It's invisible. 00:24:53.920 --> 00:25:03.519 And yet it is a real union by which Christ unites himself to our hearts so that we begin to love what he loves and hate what he hates. 00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:07.839 Namely, we love unity and we hate division. 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:16.240 And I think we don't often talk about union with Christ because it's just in these little prepositional phrases, in me, in him. 00:25:16.880 --> 00:25:22.000 But this is the primary way that the New Testament describes Christians. 00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:25.200 The word Christians isn't used about a couple times. 00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:32.240 Usually the way that someone talks about what you are is they say it's someone who is in Christ. 00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:37.200 That's the primary way to identify you in the New Testament. 00:25:37.359 --> 00:25:39.200 You are in Christ. 00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:42.400 And everything flows from this. 00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:48.400 John Murray said, quote, union with Christ is really the central truth of the doctrine of salvation. 00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:56.400 And John Flavil said, quote, all our participation of Christ's benefits is built upon our union with Christ's person. 00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:03.599 So this is really what we mean when we say that someone, we use the language of someone got saved. 00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:09.680 What we mean by saying that is that they became someone who is in Christ. 00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:16.319 Christ is now dwelling in them, and they are in Christ, like a vine and the branches. 00:26:17.359 --> 00:26:19.119 So the question then would be how? 00:26:19.279 --> 00:26:20.640 How does he bring about that union? 00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:22.000 Look at verse 22. 00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:31.519 Jesus says to the Father, the glory that you have given to me, I have given to them. 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:37.839 Which there's a lot of astounding statements in this passage, but that's one of them. 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:52.400 God's immense, eternal weightiness, his pure character communicated eternally to the Son, perfectly to the Son. 00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:55.920 The Son then turns around and gives to us. 00:26:57.759 --> 00:26:58.640 How does he do that? 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:02.240 Well, look at verse 8 in chapter 17. 00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:05.759 For I have given them the words that you gave me. 00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:10.640 There's a medium that he uses to get this to us, and it's words. 00:27:11.519 --> 00:27:12.720 What words? 00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:23.519 For I've given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them, and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. 00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:26.240 Essentially, it's a summary of the gospel. 00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:43.119 I gave them the glory that you gave me by preaching the gospel to them, which is all about me disclosing who I am in relationship to you and what I have come to do so that they may be one. 00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:55.599 When we preach the gospel, brothers and sisters, we are not simply telling people, you gotta come to church, you gotta turn your life around. 00:27:55.759 --> 00:28:00.319 What we are telling them is that you can share the life of God. 00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:04.079 Does that astound you? 00:28:06.319 --> 00:28:09.839 Jesus himself prayed for this. 00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:16.000 And we get that today through this book. 00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:27.279 This is how we have the words of the apostles, which contains the gospel which we preach, so that Jesus would give his glory to make us one. 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:38.000 So I take that to mean then, at least, that unity is predicated on belief. 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:46.559 If there's at least one condition that Jesus puts on our unity in this passage, he says, for those who will believe in me through their word. 00:28:47.759 --> 00:28:49.759 Those whom I have given my glory to. 00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:59.440 So if you're following the logic, one of the prerequisites for this unity must then necessarily be belief in the gospel. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:03.279 There is not unity outside of belief in the gospel. 00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:06.960 You don't believe in the gospel, you don't believe in Jesus, no unity. 00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:10.640 You do unity. 00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:13.359 That's it. 00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:16.960 And what's astounding about this is that it doesn't change. 00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:19.279 It's there, it doesn't go away. 00:29:19.440 --> 00:29:25.200 Jesus doesn't unite himself to his believers and then disunite himself. 00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:32.559 He doesn't give a little, but if they're being really good on Wednesday, then I'll give them some more. 00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:37.920 No, he gives us all of himself all at once in the moment of salvation. 00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:44.079 When he regenerates us and sends his spirit to dwell in us, we get all of Christ forever. 00:29:49.599 --> 00:29:54.400 But you might be asking, what on earth does this have to do with unity in the church? 00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:57.440 Well, Jesus is very specific with his language. 00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:05.599 He uses the word in verse 22, the glory that you've given me, I've given to them that they may be one. 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:07.279 That's what he's aiming at. 00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:10.960 That's why I gave them the glory, is so that they would be one. 00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:17.359 Our union with Christ is how we have unity with each other. 00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:20.240 That's what he's getting at here. 00:30:20.559 --> 00:30:25.599 It's like, think of it like, it's not a perfect analogy, but spokes on a wagon wheel. 00:30:25.759 --> 00:30:29.759 There's the center, and then there's all the spokes coming off of it. 00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:39.359 I am not spiritually directly united with all of you, apart from the center. 00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:48.160 I have unity with you, I have fellowship with you, I have a shared life with you, insofar as I am connected to the center. 00:30:48.319 --> 00:30:52.000 And you are connected to the center, which is Christ. 00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:57.119 If you ignore the center, there's no unity. 00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:05.200 But if you have the connecting element, which is Christ, then you and I have the same life. 00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:09.920 You and I have the same Lord, the same faith. 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:16.160 And I know this is kind of dense and theological. 00:31:16.480 --> 00:31:18.400 Let me make it a little bit more practical here. 00:31:20.720 --> 00:31:26.000 This means that the church's unity isn't in the church. 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:29.599 The church's unity is in Christ. 00:31:32.799 --> 00:31:37.279 We don't just get together and try to figure out how to like each other more. 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:39.920 That's not how that works. 00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:44.559 We get together and sing glorious songs about Jesus. 00:31:44.799 --> 00:31:52.799 And we hear the preaching about Jesus so that we love him more, and the more we love him, the more we look around and say, You like him too? 00:31:54.400 --> 00:31:56.079 I know what that's about. 00:31:56.960 --> 00:31:58.720 We got that in common. 00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:22.319 One other implication of this would be that if that's true, that our unity is in Christ, in union with Christ, if that's true, then to try to manufacture unity on any other basis will actually divide the church, not unite it. 00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:35.839 This is what Paul himself says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, talking to those knuckleheads in Corinth who keep dividing from each other. 00:32:36.240 --> 00:32:47.359 1 Corinthians 1 10, I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:53.359 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there's quarreling among you, my brothers. 00:32:53.519 --> 00:32:58.960 What I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul, and I follow Apollos, and I follow Sebas, or I follow Christ. 00:32:59.119 --> 00:33:00.559 Is Christ divided? 00:33:02.880 --> 00:33:09.440 You see, they took something that wasn't Christ and tried to make it the thing that they were all united around. 00:33:11.039 --> 00:33:12.720 My favorite preacher. 00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:15.200 My favorite book. 00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:19.920 My hobby, my particular area of theological interest. 00:33:22.400 --> 00:33:25.839 And you know what Paul says to them later in 1 Corinthians chapter 3? 00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:29.759 If you're gonna be like that, I can't even address you as Christians. 00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:34.400 He says in chapter 3, verse 3, for you're still of the flesh. 00:33:34.480 --> 00:33:39.599 For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 00:33:39.839 --> 00:33:45.440 For when one says, I follow Paul, and another I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? 00:33:48.079 --> 00:33:53.839 Saying, listen, if if your unity is in something other than Christ, then it's actually division. 00:33:54.880 --> 00:33:56.319 It's not unity. 00:33:57.920 --> 00:34:13.840 I remember a number of years ago I went to a church out in California and was that uh a pastor's conference there, and some of my friends uh called me to where they were, kind of in the back of the building, and said, Hey, there's a guy who's protesting the conference out here. 00:34:13.920 --> 00:34:19.760 Uh, and we want you to come talk to him because we know that you do ministry uh down at the abortion clinics. 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:22.239 And so I said, Okay, I'll go talk to him. 00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:27.519 It's this guy from an organization called Abolish Human Abortion, which is which is not a good organization. 00:34:27.760 --> 00:34:35.360 And uh and he was protesting this conference and saying, You guys aren't essentially, I'm summarizing, essentially, you aren't doing enough to oppose abortion. 00:34:35.840 --> 00:34:37.440 You need to be doing more. 00:34:37.679 --> 00:34:41.679 And so I talked to the guy, and I said, Okay, well, what would you like for us to do? 00:34:41.760 --> 00:34:49.199 And he said, Well, I will you need to be going down to the abortion clinics on a weekly basis and telling uh ladies there that they need not get an abortion. 00:34:49.360 --> 00:34:54.639 And and I told him, actually, brother, uh, we do that. 00:34:54.800 --> 00:34:56.079 I do that every week. 00:34:56.159 --> 00:34:56.719 That's what we do. 00:34:56.880 --> 00:34:58.639 We go preach the gospel down there. 00:34:59.280 --> 00:35:00.559 And wouldn't you know it? 00:35:00.639 --> 00:35:02.320 That didn't change his mind one bit. 00:35:03.119 --> 00:35:05.280 He just kept right on protesting. 00:35:07.360 --> 00:35:11.920 Because for him, unity was not in Christ. 00:35:12.880 --> 00:35:16.320 Unity was in do you say things the way that I say them? 00:35:16.559 --> 00:35:19.440 Do you oppose things the way that I oppose them? 00:35:23.039 --> 00:35:29.440 That's what's so astounding about that for a Christian is that it's law, not gospel. 00:35:32.400 --> 00:35:34.639 You just haven't done enough to be united with me. 00:35:34.719 --> 00:35:36.400 So I'm gonna protest you. 00:35:39.360 --> 00:35:41.119 Even if you keep it. 00:35:44.400 --> 00:35:46.079 That's not what Paul says. 00:35:46.400 --> 00:35:48.239 Galatians chapter 3. 00:35:48.800 --> 00:35:55.760 If you've been baptized into Christ, well then you've put on Christ. 00:35:56.719 --> 00:36:05.679 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ. 00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:08.480 That's the basis of the unity. 00:36:08.719 --> 00:36:20.239 All those other identities still exist, they still matter, and yet they are at least secondary to the primary identity, which is in Christ. 00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:22.960 Our unity is in Christ. 00:36:23.679 --> 00:36:27.280 Everything else as a basis will only divide. 00:36:28.320 --> 00:36:47.440 On the right or on the left, friends, politics, preferences, social programs, whatever it is, if that is where you think we as a church have unity, we're in trouble. 00:36:47.920 --> 00:36:51.280 Because there's always gonna be someone who doesn't like that thing, right? 00:36:53.920 --> 00:36:55.920 And who knows if we're even right. 00:36:57.679 --> 00:37:02.639 The point is our unity is in Christ, not in anything else. 00:37:02.880 --> 00:37:05.920 And if we have unity in Christ, then we really have unity. 00:37:06.800 --> 00:37:16.719 Lastly, Christ unites us for himself, he unites us like himself, in himself. 00:37:16.960 --> 00:37:18.400 That's how he accomplishes it. 00:37:18.559 --> 00:37:21.679 And then lastly, here's what he's doing with it, here's the goal. 00:37:21.920 --> 00:37:23.360 He unites us for himself. 00:37:23.519 --> 00:37:30.320 Our unity, as precious as it is, is not actually Jesus' ultimate goal. 00:37:32.079 --> 00:37:34.000 He has to go higher. 00:37:35.519 --> 00:37:37.679 This is what he says in verse 21. 00:37:40.320 --> 00:37:52.079 That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 00:37:54.639 --> 00:38:13.199 What he's saying is that this invisible unity, this union that we have with Jesus Christ, will necessarily become visible in the church in such a way that the world will take notice and believe something about Jesus because of it. 00:38:18.079 --> 00:38:27.519 There is an evangelistic impulse to this, that Jesus is reaching the world through our unity as a church. 00:38:27.840 --> 00:38:33.760 Jesus unites us to put himself on display in us. 00:38:36.559 --> 00:38:38.960 Notice what it does not say. 00:38:40.079 --> 00:38:43.119 That the world may know that we. 00:38:46.079 --> 00:38:51.519 No, that the world may know that you, Father, have sent me. 00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:56.320 It's almost like we're not even a part of the equation anymore. 00:38:56.719 --> 00:39:05.440 We're just vessels, we're channels for the glory of Christ in the unity of the church to get to the world so that they might believe. 00:39:06.719 --> 00:39:10.559 We're just clay pots, Jesus is the jewel. 00:39:13.280 --> 00:39:15.920 So, practically speaking, then, how does that happen? 00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:22.320 How does the invisible unity that we have in Christ, how does that become visible? 00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:25.440 Well, we get two hints in this text. 00:39:25.599 --> 00:39:27.119 One is in verse 23. 00:39:27.280 --> 00:39:32.000 He says, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one. 00:39:32.800 --> 00:39:38.239 This implies that there are kinds of degrees, and at least the kind of unity that he's talking about here. 00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:50.800 Our manifestation of this total oneness can admit to degrees, and I assume that that's because of our sin, because of our prideful hearts. 00:39:51.519 --> 00:40:07.440