Father Unite Them
John 17:20-23
I am sure that all of us have seen or heard the PSA spots on TV and radio where both celebrities and ordinary people are encouraging us with the message: “We’re all in this together.” It’s an attempt to unite us during this time. I’m not sure how well that message is working, but it’s a nice sentiment during this global health crisis.
This morning as we again look at Jesus’ prayer in John 17 Christian unity is a key theme. Four times John 17:20-23 Jesus prays that believers will be one, united. Listen for that as I read our text, John 17:20-23,
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
Here our Lord prays for His church of the future. He prays for all of us who will believe in Jesus through the word of the apostles. He has already prayed for their security and sanctity. Now His prayer is for unity. He has already prayed that request for His disciples back in John 17:11 where He prayed, “Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.” Jesus now prays that request for all believers twice in John 17:21, “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us…” Again in John 17:22, “…that they may be one just as We are one.” And again in John 17:23, “…that they may be made perfect in one…”
What does Jesus mean when He prays for us to be “one”? What is Christian unity?
Christian unity is a shared life in Christ.
Jesus is not praying for the world to be one, but for believers to be one. He is not praying for inter-faith unity among all Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims. He is not even praying for an organizational or external union between various denominations. Christ was not praying for a one-world church organized under one church government.
Christian Unity is a shared life in Christ. Jesus is not praying for uniformity as if all Christians must look alike or talk alike. Again, this kind of unity is external only. The church of Jesus Christ is a body with many members who do not look the same or serve the same function in the body (1 Cor. 12:12). Christian unity is not organizational or external unity.
Then, what is it? Christian unity is a shared life in Christ. As the Father is “in” the Son, and the Son is “in” the Father, and thus the two are one, so all believers are “in” Christ. Because of their unity with the Son, they are also one with the Father, and one with each other.
This unity is both positional and practical. In Ephesians 4:3, Paul wrties that we are to be “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The unity of the Spirit is a reality for believers based on our salvation in Christ. This is positional unity. Paul writes further (Eph. 4:4-6) “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” We are to guard and keep this unity.
A little later in Ephesians 4:13, after talking about the ministry of pastors and teachers who equip the saints for the work of ministry, Paul writes, “… till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” This unity of the faith is something we must grow in as we mature in Christ. This is practical unity.
We see the same thing in Jesus’ prayer in John 17. In John 17:21-22, Jesus prays that those who believe in Him would be one, even as He and the Father are one. That prayer was answered when the Holy Spirit baptized all believers into the one body in Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). Yet in John 17:23 Jesus also prays that believers “may be made perfect in one,” which implies a process of growth.
Christian unity is a shared life in Christ. Now I want to walk us through John 17:20-23 so we will understand some important truths about this unity in Christ. First, our shared life in Chirst is based on a:
1. Shared faith in the shared truth (John 17:20)
Jesus prays in John 17:20, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.” The ones that Jesus is praying for are those who will believe. Jesus uses a present participle here to expresses His confidence about what would happen in the future. If you have believed in Jesus Christ, trusted in His death for your sins and His resurrection for eternal life, then He is praying for you in these verses. As we have seen all through this Gospel, John is calling for people to believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life.
What are we to believe? What is the basis for this shared faith? It is the “word” of the apostles. Their word is the word of Christ, the word of truth taught by Christ. That word is recorded for us in the New Testament, which the Holy Spirit inspired them to write (John 14:26; 16:13, 14). We have no unity with those who call themselves Crhistians but who do not believe the word—who deny the truth of God’s word or who pervert the word through false teaching.
The word of the apostles, like the word of Jesus, centers on the Kingdom of God. Jesus is the King, the anointed Son of God who provides salvation through His substitutionary death, and resurrection from the dead. This is the gospel message, “… that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners …” (1 Tim. 1:15).
So our unity is based on our shared faith in Jesus Christ with all who believe the shared truth of God’s word.
Second, our shared life in Christ is like the:
2. Shared life of God the Father and the Son (John 17:21)
Jesus prays, “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You.” He says it again (John 17:23), “I in them, and You in Me.”
Jesus compares the unity of believers to the unity of Him with His Father. As the Father is “in” the Son, and the Son is “in” the Father, and thus the two are one, so all believers are “in” Christ. Because of our unity with the Son, we are also one with the Father, and one with each other.
Jesus Christ and God the Father are eternally one in their shared nature as God. When we are born again and become children of God, we become children of God (John 1:12-13) and share in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). Jesus’ prayer was answered on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came on all believers, uniting them in the one body in Christ. Since then, all who believe the apostles word about Christ share new life in Him (1 Cor. 12:13): “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free–and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.” This is the unity of the Spirit that Paul talks about (Eph. 4:3).
So Christian unity is a shared life in Christ based on our shared faith in the truth of God’s word and is like the unity of life shared by the Father and the Son. Thirdly, our shared life in Christ is shown by a:
3. Shared glory (John 17:22)
Jesus prays (John 17:22), “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.” What does Jesus mean?
John wrote in the introduction to his Gospel (John 1:14), “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Then John 1:16 adds, “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” So in part, the glory that Christ has given us is the glory of our salvation by grace.
Also, for Christ, the brilliance of His glory was displayed at the cross (John 12:28; 13:31-32). He was glorified in His death for us. At the cross the glory of God’s love, justice, holiness, and grace were on full display. The glory that the Father gave the Son was the glory of the humility of the incarnation, culminating both in the glory of His death, His resurrection and His exaltation at the right hand of the Father (Phil. 2:5-11).
I believe it is this glory, the glory of servanthood and sacrificial service which our Lord gives to His church. As Jesus was glorified by His coming to this earth, being rejected by men and put to death, so His disciples are also given the same glory, the glory of suffering for the sake of Christ. As Peter writes about our suffering and trials (1 Peter 1:7), “that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” And Paul writes about us being, “… heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
So Christian unity is based on our shared faith in the shared truth; is like the unity of the Father and the Son; is shown in the shared glory in Christ; and fourthly is for the purpose of our:
4. Shared mission (John 17:21, 23)
The purpose or result of our unity is for a witness to the world. Jesus prays this in John 17:21, “ … that the world may believe that You sent Me,” and again in John 17:23, “…that the world may know that You have sent Me.”
Our unity in Christ is meant to be a powerful witness to the world that God has sent His Son. We are often the only Bible that people read. By our godly lives, by our love for one another, by our verbal witness to the person and work of Christ, and by our visible unity with all true believers, we proclaim to the world the truth that God sent His Son to save sinners.
Ray Stedman writes,
The divine strategy by which the Lord intends to bring the world to an awareness of Jesus Christ is to create in the midst of the world a family, a family life, a shared life, so that men and women all over the earth, becoming by new birth members of that life, enter into a family circle which is so unmistakable and so filled with joy and warmth that worldlings observing it will envy it and, like homeless orphans with their noses pressed up against the window, will long to join the warmth and the fellowship of the family circle.
Christian unity is our shared life in Christ based on our shared faith in the shared truth; is like the unity of the Father and His Son; is shown by His shared glory in suffering; is for the purpose of our shared mission to a lost world; and finally is characterized by a,
5. Shared love (John 17:23)
Jesus prays, “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” What a staggering statement: that the Father has loved us even as He loved Jesus!
John writes in his first epistle (1 John 3:1), “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!”
Church He loves us!!! All in spite of us! He doesn’t love us because of how amazing we are, for we are merely sinners, but He loves us because of how amazing He is! And how amazing it is that He loves us!!! It is this great love that has been lavished on us in the gospel, and it’s this love that brings us together—that unifies us
John applies this truth in 1 John 4:11, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” It’s relatively easy to love folks who are just like you. But the church is to show Christ’s love across national, ethic, cultural, generational, and class divisions as we worship together and care for one another. There was no greater divide in the first century than that between Jews and Gentiles. But Paul emphasized that the glory of the church is that Christ broke down the barrier wall between Jews and Gentiles making them both one body through the cross (Eph. 2:14-22). Therefore as Paul writes in Colossians 3:11, “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.” When people who are divided in the world display their love for one another in the local church, the world will see God’s love on display.
Christian Unity is our shared life in Christ which is,
Based on a … Shared faith in the shared truth (John 17:20)
Is like the … Shared life of God the Father and the Son (John 17:21)
Is shown by a … Shared glory (John 17:22)
Is for the purpose of our … Shared mission (John 17:22, 23)
And is characterized by a … Shared love (John 17:23)
Do you have this shared life? Have you believed the truth of God’s word? Are you sharing in His suffering and glory? Are you bearing witness in our shared mission? Do you share His love with His family?
