Sunday
Morning Bible Study
March
20, 2011
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church?
Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Jesus is on His
last evening with the disciples.
He's been giving them lots of instruction, preparing them for the tough
days ahead.
And now He stops to pray.
17:20-26 Jesus
prays for us
: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.
:20 pray – erotao –
to question; to ask; to request, entreat, beg, beseech
In verses 1-5, Jesus prayed for Himself.
In verses 6-19, Jesus prayed for His disciples.
:20 but also for
those who will believe
Jesus is praying for us, those who have believed through the word of the
disciples.
He’s still praying for us:
(Heb 7:25 NKJV) Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come
to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Robert Murray
McCheyne wrote, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I
would not fear a million enemies. Yet
distance makes no difference. He is
praying for me.”
We have the privilege of sharing God’s word with people so they might
believe.
:21 one – heis –
one
:21 may be one, as
You, Father, are in Me
Our unity should be similar to Jesus’ unity with the Father.
Dependent on God: Even though Jesus Himself was fully God, He
chose to live His life dependent upon the Father.
(Jn 5:30 NKJV) I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment
is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who
sent Me.
Obedient to God: A part of the connection between Jesus and
the Father was based upon Jesus living a life of obedience to the Father.
(Jn 8:29 NKJV) And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone,
for I always do those things that please Him.”
Our unity with
one another ought to be connected to these kinds of things.
We are learning to live a life dependent upon God.
We are learning to live lives of obedience to God.
:21 they also may
be one in Us
Unity comes
from being having a common relationship
with God.
(1 Jn 1:3
NKJV) —3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you
also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus
Christ.
This should be the basis for our unity with other Christians.
Is there a fellowship, a relationship with God?
They may dress
differently, pray differently, or sing differently.
They may
believe differently about the work of the Holy Spirit. They may believe differently about the sovereignty of God and
man’s free will. They may believe differently about what the
end times are going to look like.
But if they
know God, if they know Jesus Christ, there is a basis for unity.
:21 that the world
may believe that You sent Me
Jesus said that the world would get a better idea of who He was when we
learned to operate in unity. Sadly this
has not often been the case through history. Division has come for many
reasons. Some good, some not so good.
In the book of Acts, the early church had struggles between how the
Greek and Jewish widows were being cared for (Acts 6).
There was struggle over whether or not the Gentiles needed to be
circumcised to be saved (Acts 15).
In 325 AD, the
church held a council at Nicaea to deal with the heresies that a fellow named
Arius was teaching, as to whether or not Jesus really was God.
In 1054, the
“Great Schism” took place, dividing the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Roman
Catholic Church, a division that seemed to be mostly about who was going to
rule over the church.
In 1517, Martin
Luther tacked up his list of 95 theses on the church door at Wittenburg which
led to the Protestant reformation, splitting from the Roman Catholic Church. His reformations had to do grace, faith, and
the abuses that had developed in the church.
In 1534 the
Church of England broke from the Roman Catholic church so Henry VIII could
divorce his wife and marry another woman.
In the early 1700s, the Church of England pastor John Wesley began to
preach the gospel and thousands were getting saved. His group eventually left the Church of
England and formed the Methodists.
Even the
Calvary Chapel movement has experienced division. In 1982, with the encouragement of Chuck
Smith, the Vineyard churches split off because they wanted to see a greater
emphasis on charismatic experience.
Illustration
The 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.”
:22 And the
glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are
one:
:22 glory … I have
given them
We will be glorified. Paul wrote,
(Col 3:4 NKJV) When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear
with Him in glory.
(1 Jn 3:2
NKJV)
—2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what
we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we
shall see Him as He is.
The hard thing is that “glory” seems so far from our daily lives.
(2
Co 4:16–18 NKJV) —16
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is
perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory, 18
while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things
which are not seen are eternal.
It may be tough now, but there will be a day when the difficulties will be
over and we will be in glory.
: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.
:23 may be made
perfect – teleioo – to
make perfect, complete; add what is yet wanting in order to render a thing
full; to bring to the end (goal) proposed.
We call it “maturity”
:23 perfect in one
“perfected into one”
Jesus is talking about “unity” being “mature”.
Mature Unity
(Jn 17:23 NASB95) …that they may be perfected in
unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You
have loved Me.
(Jn 17:23 NLT) …May
they experience such perfect
unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them
as much as you love me.
Lesson
Mature Unity
What does “mature unity” look like?
It seems that
sometimes we tend to draw lines in the sand.
Who are we going to call our “brother in Christ”?
Sometimes
we draw the lines pretty close to us.
Unless
you agree with me about everything, including what color the carpet should be
in the sanctuary, then you’re not my brother.
Sometimes
we draw the lines pretty far from us so we can include more people.
We feel we can stand arm in arm with our Muslim and
Buddhist brothers because after all, aren’t we all children of God? We even have a theme song …
Play
“We are the world”
clip.
Don’t
misunderstand me – I’m not saying that we are to “hate” people of other
faiths. I’m not saying that we don’t
reach out in love to people of other belief systems. But they don’t stand with us when it comes to
proclaiming the truth about who God is.
Who are you willing to claim “unity” with?
It ought to be with those who know Jesus Christ.
Sometimes we unite over the wrong things.
Illustration:
One lady wrote, “My
granddaughter was telling me that she and her three playmates all
attended different churches. Then she
added, ‘It really doesn’t matter if we go to different churches, does it
Grandma—just as
long as we’re all Republicans?’”
Our unity
should be over the fact that we serve the same Lord!
It's crazy not
to get along with each other.
Illustration:
A man was
visiting an insane asylum one day, and he noticed that all the insane people
were being watched by only one guard. He asked the guard, “Aren’t you afraid?” The guard said, “Absolutely not.” He said, “Don’t you believe that since you
are the only one here, these people could over-run you and break out of the
asylum?” He said, “That’s impossible.” The man asked, “Why is that impossible?” The guard replied, “Because lunatics don’t
unite.”
-- Tony Evans
If I'm a person who doesn't want to get along with others and put our
differences behind us, what does that make me?
Crazy.
We could learn
a lot from geese.
Illustration:
Next time you
see geese flying along in V formation, you might be interested in knowing what
science has discovered about why they fly that way. It has been learned that as
each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately
following. By flying in a V formation, the whole flock adds at least 71 percent
greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.
Whenever a
goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of
trying to go it alone, and quickly
gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird
immediately in front.
When the lead goose gets tired, he rotates back in the wing and another
goose flies point.
The geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their
speed.
Finally, when a
goose gets sick, or is wounded by a shot and falls out, two geese fall out of
formation and follow him down to help and protect him. They stay with him until
he is either able to fly, or until he is dead, and then they launch out on their own or with
another formation to catch up with their original group.
We'll get much farther if we learn to work together.
Lesson
Results of Unity
Jesus says that two things result from our learning to work together in
unity.
Evangelism
When we become mature in our unity, part of result is that the world may
know who Jesus is.
It kind of reminds me of what happens at the Harvest Crusade.
All kinds of different churches come together to proclaim
the gospel. Lots of people get saved.
God’s love
Somehow the world gets a hint at the love that God has for us when we learn
to put our arms around our brothers and sisters in Christ.
God’s love for us was demonstrated when He sent His Son to die for us.
(1 Jn 3:16 NKJV) By
this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren.
God’s love is illustrated and described to the world when we learn to love
each other.
(Jn 13:34–35 NKJV) —34
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved
you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have
love for one another.”
:24 “Father, I
desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may
behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation
of the world.
:24 I desire – thelo
– to will, have in mind, intend; to desire, to wish
Prayer is expressing your “desire” to God, yet ultimately submitting to
God’s “will”.
:24 may be with Me
Lesson
Heaven’s surety
Jesus prays for us to be in heaven with Him.
It seems as if He wants us to see what His life used to be like before He
took on flesh and came to earth.
It reminds me
of those stories like Mark Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper” where a prince trades
place with a commoner and lives among the poor of his country. And then the day comes when his new friends
find out that he is indeed the crown prince of the country…
When we are studying about Jesus in the gospels, sometimes we can forget
about the fact that He is indeed the Prince of Heaven.
Warren Wiersbe likes to use this verse when he gives a message at a
funeral. How can we know that those who believe in Jesus will go to heaven?
The price that was paid
(1 Th 5:9–10 NKJV) —9
For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord
Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live
together with Him.
He died for our sins so we could live with Him.
The promise that was made
(Jn 14:1–3 NKJV) —1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe
also in Me. 2 In My
Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will
come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
He promised to prepare a place for us so we could be with
Him.
The prayer that was prayed
The text we’re in here …
(Jn 17:24 NKJV) —24
“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am,
that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before
the foundation of the world.
If Jesus prayed this for us, do you think that God will
answer that prayer?
:25 O righteous Father!
The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that
You sent Me.
:25 O righteous Father – dikaios
– upright, virtuous; innocent, faultless, guiltless
Look at how Jesus addresses the
Father:
(Jn 17:1 NKJV) …“Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your
Son, that Your Son also may glorify You…
(Jn 17:11b NKJV) …Holy Father, keep through Your name
those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
(Jn 17:25 NKJV) O righteous Father! The world has not
known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.
:25 known – ginosko
– to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, feel; to
know, understand, perceive, have knowledge of
:26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the
love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
:26 declared – gnorizo
– to make known; to know, to gain knowledge of, have thorough knowledge of
Earlier in Jesus said He had “manifested” (phaneroo) God’s name:
(Jn 17:6 NKJV)
—6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the
world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
:26 declared to
them Your name
We’ve talked before (John
17:6) about how in the Bible a person’s name is reflective of
their character. It’s who they are.
We’ve talked about how Jesus made a point to portray God accurately, truthfully.
“Declaring your name” speaks about the truth of God, the truth about who He
is.
The goal for this truth is that we might experience the love of God.
Lesson
Truth and Unity
It has been said that
Truth without
love is brutality.
Love without
truth is hypocrisy.
As we grow to understand the importance of unity, it’s also important to know
where the limits are.
Unity doesn’t mean we’re silent when a brother strays from the truth.
A new book was released this week, now ranked #2 on Amazon.com.
Rob Bell is the
pastor of Mars Hill church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His new book is called “Love Wins”. Listen carefully and closely…
Play
Rob Bell’s video
clip from Amazon.com
Please don’t
get me wrong here. I get the sense that
Rob Bell is probably way smarter than I am, he’s certainly more talented, and I
don’t doubt that he has a sincere heart in wanting people to find Jesus and
follow Him.
But I find some of the comments in the video disturbing.
I find it disturbing that he presents a false image of the
gospel, an image that the world might think is true, and then challenges that
false idea.
He
hints that the idea of “few”
people going to heaven as “disturbing”. I agree it’s disturbing, but Jesus said,
(Mt 7:14 NKJV) Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads
to life, and there are few
who find it.
He makes is sound as if some of us preachers have Jesus is
saving us from God, that somehow the church is
incorrectly teaching that Jesus is good and God is bad.
The
Bible doesn’t teach that Jesus saved us from God. It teaches that Jesus saved us from our sin.
It’s Jesus that said …
(Jn 3:16 NKJV) For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life.
He
hints that it is wrong to assume that a person must believe in Jesus in this life in order to make it into heaven. His book’s point is after a person dies God’s
love can continue to woo that person until they finally find their way into
heaven, even if they did not believe in this life. Jesus said,
(Jn 3:18 NKJV) “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned
already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of
God.
Unity doesn’t
mean that we stop telling the truth to one another. I can have unity with Rob
Bell as my brother in Christ, but I will also speak the truth.
Paul talks about unity, but talks about it in the context of truth:
(Eph 4:13–16 NKJV) —13 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; 14 that we should no
longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful
plotting, 15 but, speaking
the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole
body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the
effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body
for the edifying of itself in love.
Paul links unity with maturity, but only as we learn to
speak the truth to each other in love.
Do you believe
in Jesus Christ today?
Jesus didn’t come to save you from God.
Jesus came to save you from your own sin.
God loved you so much that He sent His Son to die in your place, to pay the
price for your sin, so that you could come to know God.
You need to believe. Now.