Thoughts on unity from John 17
There’s a great Peanuts comic strip where Lucy walks into the living room and demands that Linus change the TV channel and threatens him with her fist if he doesn’t. “What makes you think you can just walk in here and take right over?” asks Linus. “These five fingers,” says Lucy. “Individually they are nothing, but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is fearsome to behold.” “What channel do you want?” asks Linus. Turning away he looks at his fingers and says, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?”
Yesterday (11/1) we discussed unity- what it is and what it isn’t. We came to two conclusions:
1. Unity is not about you and I striving to be one, but about each of us becoming more like Jesus. To the measure that we become more like Jesus we quite naturally become one with eachother. We used a simple mathematical property of equality to illustrate this:
If A = C and B = C then A = B
translated…
If You = Jesus and I = Jesus then You = I
2. Jesus said in John 17:23 “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” The world will see Jesus not a result of our buildings and programs, messages and music, organizations and politics, but as a result of experiencing the “oneness” of His followers.
Like the Peanuts comic strip, if Jesus followers, the true church, became “one” it would be a fearsome (and wonderful) thing to behold. The first few chapters of the book of Acts describe such a time.
Acts 1:14 “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”
Acts 2:1 “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.”
Acts 4:32 “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.”
May God draw us closer together as he conforms us to the image of His Son making us an “Acts” church.
wes
ossp – John 17…
Greetings!
For the next three Sundays — Oct 25, Nov 1 and Nov 8 — we will be looking at John 17, the Lord’s prayer for himself, his disciples and … us!
This prayer gives us an inside, up close, very personal picture of how Jesus thought at the time of his disciples, and how he anticipated the future disciples (that would be us!).
There are some great themes in chapter 17: like ”in the world but not of the world,” “…that they all may be one.”
Read chapter 17 over. And then post your comments, questions, thoughts and observations, stories and illustrations here. Ray Anchan will be teaching for the first time in Celebration & Growth on Oct 25th, WES on November 1st and I ‘ll be back in the saddle November 8th (when the rest of the guys will be at Berea for Man camp 1). I’m sure that they’d like to know what you think.
Pray for Ray and Wes. And pray for all of us – as Jesus did — that we would make him Lord as well a Savior.
Resting in Him,
Steve
Sunday, October 18th – Batpism Sunday!
We’re interrupting the sermon series in John this week for the baptism of five sisters and brothers in Christ: Jenn, Nick, Nave, Rob and WendyLynn. This will be a fantastic morning together as we hear this personal stories of God’s saving grace in the lives of people just like us.
It will be interesting to hear stories of people from all walks of life and different ages groups and see how God’s amazing grace broke through in each case to draw them to faith and salvation.
Join me in praying this week for them as they anticipate this great opportunity to publicly identify with Jesus Christ as the forgiver of their sin and the leader of their life.
Resting in Him,
Steve
–
open source sermon prep for October 11th, 2009…
The text for Sunday October 11th is John 16, verses 16-33. The key thought that I am hoping to spend some time is the concept found in the last verse of the pericope. (per-ic’-o-pee: That’s just a fancy-dancy, 50-cent word for a section or portion of Scripture to be taken as a single unit. It’s usually a couple of paragraphs focused on the same topic. While a single chapter may be a pericope, usually a chapter has multiple pericopes within it. The NIV, and most study bibles, conveniently divides the chapters into pericopes for us.)
Verse 33 says…
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
In the context of your life–work, family, school, etc.–what does “in me (talking there about Jesus, in Jesus…) you may have peace” mean to you? How about the idea of “take heart?”
Resting in Him,
Steve
-
