A Prayer for the Church

John 17:20-26

Main Idea: Jesus is on his way to the cross to die for us, but before he dies, he stops to pray for us.

1. Jesus Prays That Believers Will Be United in Him.
   1. Unity is not compromising the truth.
   2. Unity is not outlawing any diversity.
   3. Unity is participation in a shared relationship with Jesus.
2. Excursus: Evidences of a Unified Church
   1. A shared commitment to biblical instruction
   2. A shared understanding of our new identity
   3. A shared pursuit of sacrificial love
   4. A shared discontentment with selfish division
3. Jesus Prays That Believers Will Be Reunited with Him.

In John 17 Jesus is on his way to the cross to die for us, but before he dies, he stops to pray for us. What is important enough to stop and pray for on the way to the cross? Jesus asks the Father to answer two requests.

Jesus Prays That Believers Will Be United in Him

This portion of the prayer has an overarching theme: “May they all be one” (v. 21). Jesus pauses to ask his Father to bring a supernatural unity to his church. While the weight of all the world’s sin is being placed on the shoulders of Jesus, our unity is on his mind. What does this unity that’s so important to Jesus look like? Let’s start with what it’s not.

Unity Is Not Compromising the Truth

D. A. Carson wrote,

[Unity] is not achieved by hunting enthusiastically for the lowest common theological denominator, but by common adherence to the apostolic gospel. (John, 568)

Jesus is not praying for unity based on our own personal opinions of who God is but a unity based on who God really is as revealed through his disciples. We are the people who believe on Jesus through the word of his disciples (v. 20). We believe what God has revealed about Jesus in the Bible. Our unity began when we heard the truth about God conveyed through the word of the disciples, and our unity continues based on that truth (cf. 1 John 1:3).

Every Sunday morning when my church meets, I look around and see scientists and accountants, professors and students, blue-collar workers and management, small business owners and retirees, moms and dads, husbands and wives. There’s no reason for them to sit in the same room listening to me unless I am teaching the truth about Jesus revealed in his Word. We didn’t go to the same colleges, we don’t like the same sports teams, we don’t have the same hobbies, but our bond is far stronger than the bond shared by those at the same country club or stadium. All of us know and understand we’re sinners deserving of God’s punishment and have received God’s grace because we believe on Jesus through the word of the apostles. We share something more powerful than a common experience or shared interest. We share Christ, and we don’t need to compromise the truth to be unified. Our unity does not come from deemphasizing the truth of God’s revelation.

Unity Is Not Outlawing Any Diversity

If you’ve seen a military documentary, then you can probably picture scenes where battalions of soldiers line up, all wearing matching uniforms, all standing the same way. They are faceless, nameless, and opinionless, but they’re uniform. Some believe the church should be a battalion of nondescript soldiers ready to assault the world. This often happens when a leader demands everyone think like he thinks. He often uses the pulpit to bully people into his positions. He’s trying to create good soldiers who think, look, and act just like him.

A rigid push for uniformity can actually be one of the most disunifying forces in a church because it denies the reality of the Spirit’s unique gifting (cf. 1 Cor 12:4-6). The beauty of diversity is summed up well in the classic quotation: “In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. In all things, charity.” Unity, not uniformity, is what Jesus is praying for.

Unity Is Participation in a Shared Relationship with Jesus

Unity is not compromising the truth or outlawing all diversity. The unity Jesus asks for is a unity of relationship. It’s receiving a new identity as one with Christ—being swallowed up in fellowship with God himself, his Son, and his Spirit (vv. 21-23). Christian unity is a result of entering into the deep relationship that exists within the Trinity. Jesus describes the foundational relationship between the Father and the Son (v. 21). The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. Next he describes the relationship between believers and the Son (vv. 21, 23). The Son is in believers, and believers are in the Son. As a result, believers are in the Father (v. 21). Do you see how Christian unity is rooted in our relationship with Jesus?

Our relationship is not exactly the same as the relationship between the Father and the Son. The Father and Son are distinct persons, but they are eternally one in essence. We are brought into relationship with them through faith. We are placed “in Christ,” and the Spirit of Christ comes to live in us. By virtue of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, we enter into a deep, abiding, never-ending relationship with the Father, Son, and Spirit.

The nature of the church’s unity is the unity modeled and enabled by the triune God. Just as the Father and Son are distinguishable yet perfectly unified, so we though different, with different gifts and backgrounds, preferences and appearances, are perfectly united in and through Christ. If there is a river of love that has eternally flowed between the members of the Trinity, then we find our unity with one another by immersing ourselves completely in it. We get so close to Jesus we become drenched with his love, with the result we cannot help but love one another.

The church in the ancient city of Philippi was experiencing disunity, with disagreements and conflict. Paul writes a letter to help them deal with their conflict:

Make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. (Phil 2:2-4)

Don’t fight and argue, but instead be humble and have unity. How? What’s Paul’s antidote for disunity in the church? He continues in verse 5: “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus.” He describes the humiliation of Jesus, how he came as a servant and was put to death as a criminal. What’s his point? The only way to draw closer to one another, the only way to grow in unity as Christians, is to become more like Jesus. Our unity is based in and empowered by Jesus alone.

Christian unity is a unity of relationship, and it’s also a unity of mission. The context of this passage is the mission Jesus had given his disciples. As believers discover their unity with one another in their union with Christ, they discover a unity of mission. The Father and the Son are unified in their desire to rescue sinners from the shackles of death (that’s why Jesus came), and as each church draws closer to Jesus, their unity will be displayed in a common dedication to the mission of Jesus. Like a nation whose homeland has been attacked by an enemy, the vision of that church will focus more precisely on the mission they’ve been given. All of the distractions will fade as a common passion develops to see men and women rescued from the horrible clutches of sin. When unity of relationship spills out and overflows into unity of mission, men and women will hear the truth about Jesus from the mouths of disciples of Jesus and will respond in faith to Jesus.

Excursus

Let me fill out this picture of unity by giving four evidences of a unified church.

A Shared Commitment to Biblical Instruction

Unity is not a by-product of discussion and diplomacy; rather, unity flows from a commitment to the Word of God. In John 17:22 Jesus uses the word glory in the sense of revelation. The disciples have received the revelation about God through the ministry of Jesus. This glory came not only through his person and works but also through his words. His glory (in v. 22) is parallel to his words (v. 8). We will be one as we continue to hold firmly to the revelation (or glory) of God passed down by the disciples.

When we consider the history of the church, particularly the high-tide moments when the church had the greatest impact on the world, we turn to the book of Acts. In chapter 2 three things merge together—impact on the world, unity of the church, and commitment to the Word.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. (Acts 2:42-44; emphasis added)

If every member of a church is willing to ask, “What does the Bible say?” and commit to obey it no matter what, that church will experience unity. There will never be unity within a church when the Word of God is neglected. When the good seed of God’s Word is no longer spread, you will find the church taken over by the weeds of gossip, selfishness, and conflict. Only the power of God through his Word brings a harvest of peace and righteousness within a fellowship of saints.

A Shared Understanding of Our New Identity

As believers, we are “in Christ.” He is the true vine, and at the moment of salvation we are placed in him. Our strength, guidance, and nourishment come solely from that life-giving connection to him. At salvation we are given a new position and identity. Who we are is wrapped up completely in Christ. In Confessions by Augustine, the fourth-century bishop of Hippo, he tells about a renowned philosopher who turned to Jesus. At the service when he made a public declaration of faith, because of his new identity in Christ, he wanted a new name. What a compelling picture of a believer’s new identity in Christ!

At salvation we receive a new identity in Christ, and we’re brought into a community of brothers and sisters whose identity is found in Christ. Our position in him allows us to experience unparalleled unity amid incredible diversity. Our new identity in Christ makes us a family. Three times in our text Jesus says the word Father (John 17:21, 24,25). You and I are brought into the family of God through the work of Jesus Christ. We no longer relate to one another as strangers; we love one another as family members. Christian unity is people from all ethnicities, countries, and social circles becoming family members. It means caring for each man in your church as you would care for your brother and treating each woman with the respect you would your sister.

A Shared Pursuit of Sacrificial Love

We are brought into the love that exists between the Father and the Son. Twice in this passage (vv. 23, 26) we are told believers will know and experience that God loves us with the same love he has for the Son. There’s no way this understanding of God’s supernatural, selfless, sacrificial love can do anything other than overflow into our relationships with others (cf. 13:34). Our love for one another is reflected as we

• bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:1),
• instruct one another (Rom 15:14),
• forgive one another (Eph 4:2),
• pray for one another (Jas 5:16),
• submit to one another (Eph 5:21),
• encourage one another (1 Thess 4:18), and
• provoke one another, not to anger, but to love and good works (Heb 10:24).

Christ is not praying for us to embrace a concept but a conduct. He wants lives marked by unity—a unity that leads us to walk hand in hand with one another. When one family member hurts, we don’t just take note of it; we hurt as well. When a sister feels rejected, we accept her. When a brother begins to stumble, we pick him up. Real unity requires breaking a sweat. Unity takes effort and demands sacrifice.

A Shared Discontentment with Selfish Division

Unity always moves forward, striving for perfection (John 17:23). The word completely doesn’t mean “spotless” but contains the idea of pursuing the highest degree of unity.

It keeps a target always in front of us. We are never content. We must never say, “We’re unified enough.” If someone dropped some arsenic in your cup, you wouldn’t be satisfied until you were certain every last drop of poison had been removed. Disunity and broken relationships are like poison in the church. We can’t be content until every last drop of division is removed—not by getting rid of someone or leaving ourselves but by dealing biblically with division.

There should be no safer place in the entire world for a child of God than in the church. This fellowship should be an attack-free zone. Puritan preacher Thomas Brooks wrote, “Discord and division become no Christian. For wolves to worry the lambs is no wonder, but for one lamb to worry another, this is unnatural and monstrous” (“Legacies”). Do you make your church a safe place? Are you proactively and humbly dealing with differences and disagreements?

Unity in the church is a powerful testimony in the world. Real unity is a supernatural work and points to a supernatural reason: Jesus lives in us (v. 21). Thomas Manton said, “Divisions in the church breed atheism in the world” (quoted in Hughes, John, 411). John MacArthur puts it this way: “The effectiveness of the church’s evangelism is devastated by dissension and disputes among its members” (John 12–21, 293). Sadly, we can all probably share stories to show that’s true. The good news is the reverse is also true. A unified church reveals powerful, life-changing truths to the world. Christian unity reveals Jesus actually did come to the earth, sent by the Father to die on the cross and pay the penalty for our sin (v. 21). The church is the visible display of God’s goodness to this world. Each local church is the visible display of God’s kindness to its community. We don’t have any photographs of Jesus. The church is the photograph. The church is the picture of his love and mercy. There’s a picture frame around each church and a sign above us that says, “Come, see what God is like.”

When a non-Christian sees a unified church, the only logical conclusion is God loves us just like he loves Jesus (v. 23). A group of believers, spanning generations and ethnicity and gender, all worshiping Christ and ministering to one another, will make the unbelieving stop and say, “God’s love is real.” A unified church is a billboard declaring Jesus came to earth because the Father loves us with the love reserved for his Son. Could there possibly be a more compelling appeal to a broken world?

Jesus Prays That Believers Will Be Reunited with Him

Christians experience a unique union and fellowship with Jesus right now, but it’s only a shadow of what we will experience for all eternity in his presence. In his Father’s house we will see his glory (v. 24). We will see the full display of divine goodness. We will experience the presence of Jesus in unveiled splendor. We get a taste of it now—through his Word and by his indwelling Spirit—but in the future we will experience the full delight and joy of unhindered fellowship with our Savior. John Calvin describes the difference:

At that time they saw Christ’s glory as someone shut up in the dark sees a feeble and glimmering light through small cracks. Christ now wants them to go on to enjoy the full brightness of heaven. (John, 402–3)

The apostle John said it this way in his first letter:

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

We will see him as he is. We will worship him face-to-face. What a privilege! What a promise! We, who know Jesus and have been received into his family, are going home. We’re going to a home unaffected by divorce, unmarked by abuse, and untainted by sin. We’re going to a home where we will forever experience perfect and complete harmony. Why? Because we’re going to our Father’s house.

Joni Eareckson Tada tells a wonderful story about a little boy named Jeff:

At the end of a five-day retreat for families affected by disabilities, a microphone was passed around so all the participants could share a couple of sentences about how meaningful, how fun the week had been. Little freckle-faced, red-haired Jeff raised his hand. We were so excited to see what Jeff would say, because Jeff had won the hearts of us all at family retreat. Jeff has Down syndrome. He took the microphone, put it right up to his mouth, and said, “Let’s go home.” Later, his mother told me, “His dad couldn’t come to family retreat because he had to work. Jeff really missed his dad back home.” (“Heaven, Our Real Home”)

It won’t be long until we get to go home. Not much longer and we’ll forever enjoy peace and unity in the Father’s house. In just a little while we will experience the uninhibited love the Father and Son have shared from before the foundation of the world. But we can begin to experience it here.

The church can be a taste of heaven. When people with different preferences, hobbies, jobs, genders, backgrounds, skin colors, accents, and tastes love one another with a love surpassing all human love, they open a window to heaven, and people begin to feel a breeze from a far-off country and in their souls awaken a long-dormant hope. They want to go to that place and be with those people who know, see, and feel something different, something beyond, something more.

The love of God assures us we have a home and a country on the other side of the sea. This knowledge binds us together and spills out in a love that feels strangely foreign but still familiar. When people see this love displayed in a million little ways, they will hope it’s real, and when the hope is confirmed, they will understand the story is true. They will know Jesus lives and Jesus loves.

Reflect and Discuss

1. What does Jesus pray for his followers?
2. What are some things that unity is not?
3. Are there relationships in your life that would not exist apart from the gospel? How has God united you with those people?
4. What passages of Scripture celebrate the diversity of God’s people united through the gospel?
5. How can unity with other believers in Christ affect the way you engage in God’s mission?
6. List the four evidences of a unified church.
7. To what had the church in Acts 2 devoted themselves? What was the result?
8. How can you pursue sacrificial love in your church?
9. Why is unity in the church a powerful testimony?
10. Does the unity in your church provide a compelling picture of God’s intended plan? What steps can you take today to live in unity with other believers?