ONE IS THE HOLIEST NUMBER
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I. Introduction
A. Who am I and what do I do?
B. Here’s a funny joke for you.
A preacher and his wife were cleaning up their house. The preacher came across a box he didn't recognize. His wife told him to leave it alone, it was personal. One day she was out and his curiosity got the best of him. He opened the box, and inside he found three eggs and $2000. When his wife came home, he admitted that he opened the box, and he asked her to explain the contents to him. She told him that every time he had a bad sermon, she would put an egg in the box. He interrupted, "In 20 years, only three bad sermons? That's not bad." His wife continued... "and every time I got a dozen eggs, I would sell them for $1."
C. The topic at hand - united, we stand. Divided, we fall. SIDE NOTE: Did you know the first known recorded usage of that phrase was in the 4th century BC?! A greek storyteller named Aesop (maybe you’ve heard of his fables) used it in something called “The Four Oxen and the Lion.” That has nothing to do with today’s message. It was used about 500 years later by Jesus in the gospel of Mark, but Jesus did what He always does and made it better.
Mark 3:25 (ESV)
25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
I want to spend our time together talking about the need for unity in the body of Christ. What a divided world needs is a UNITED Church.
II. It’s What Jesus Wants!
A. I want to read a whole chapter to you today. I looked for a place to splice it, but all that did was make me want to read the four chapters before it, too. I won’t, but you should, because it’s all one scene here. It starts with Jesus washing the feet of His disciples’ feet and moves forward into some of the most significant moments in the whole New Testament. It culminates in John 17, which we call the High Priestly Prayer. Here’s what it says.
John 17:1–26 (ESV)
1 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, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have 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. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 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. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
B. He’s praying for who?!
Jesus starts by praying for His disciples. Right there in front of them. And Jesus is really having a moment with the Father here. He’s asking for the Father to keep them in His name, He’s praying for their joy to be fulfilled, He’s praying for them to be kept from the evil, for them to be sanctified in truth. And He’s asking for them to be ONE, even as Jesus and the Father are ONE. And we’re talking about a pretty gnarly group of characters here. All kinds of backgrounds, education levels, ages, you name it. And they’re not always the brightest bunch. At the end of chapter 16, they all kinda look at Jesus and say, “Ohhh, now I get it. It would have been easier if you wouldn’t have talked in riddles for three years, but we get it now!” How are these guys gonna share the same level of unity that Jesus shares with the Father? We’ll come back to that, because what happens next is some Back to the Future level mind boggling.
Next up, Jesus prays for YOU. And me. He prays for those who would come to believe in Him through the words of the disciples in that room. Did you know that’s you? And that’s me. If we were able to trace our spiritual lineage all the way back, it would start right here. That means that this prayer is about US. We who had not yet entered into the world. We who only existed in the heart of God at this point. So what’s His prayer for us? That we would survive a “global pandemic” and not run out of toilet paper in 2020 or that we not buy stock in Enron or spend thousands of dollars on a Y2K bunker? Some of y’all are too young to get that reference. I’ll see your eclipse and raise you a Y2K. No. Jesus prayed that we would ALSO experience the same level of unity that He experienced with the Father.
He notes that He’s not praying for the world here. Oh, He so loved the world, but this prayer is about us. Those who’ve chosen to follow. Those who’ve joined themselves to His body. He’s praying for US to experience that unity with Him, with the Father, and with each other.
And it begs the question…why? Glad you asked, because Jesus (as always) has an answer. In verse 23, He prays that we may become perfectly one. “Perfect” is an interesting word here, because it comes from the Greek word “touleos,” which means mature or complete. He wants us to be one in TOTALITY. With no lack. Not mostly one, but perfectly one. No cracks or wrinkles. But…why? So that the world may know that 1.) God sent Jesus and 2.) that God loves US just as much as He loves Jesus.
The purpose of our perfect unity is to demonstrate who Jesus is and to serve as a testimony of God’s love for us. God loves you just as much as He loves Jesus. Paul said in Romans 8 that Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. God’s love for His children as a Father, a perfect Father, is not because of what we’ve done, but because of WHO HE IS. So in order for us to show the world all about His love, we have to be UNITED in our place as His body, His Church.
III. And how are we supposed to do that?
A. Let’s talk first about what this is not. It’s not a call to conformity. He makes a pretty strong separation here between us and the world, and we have to draw lines in the sand. You don’t reach the world by imitating the world; you reach the world by being imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1).
Ephesians 5:1–2 (ESV)
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
What separates us from the world? What sets us apart? A different kind of love. An identity as beloved children. Imitators of a love that gives itself up and didn’t seek its own first. So we can’t do things the world’s way and expect God’s results. The world’s version of love is not God’s. There’s a lot of division in the Church based on this idea of what love is. Because there are churches who would say that love is love, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a man and a woman or a man and a man or a woman and a woman or a man and a child or a human and an animal. You love who you love, and you can’t help that. Let’s clarify. If the love is not rooted in God’s love and His design for how we are to love, it’s not love at all. It’s a counterfeit. It’s fraudulent love. Real love speaks the truth. I can’t say I love you and let you go to hell. I can’t say I love you and watch idly as you go down a path toward destruction. This is where unity in the body of Christ gets lost at the most basic level. The definition of what LOVE is has to go back to what Jesus said. A couple of chapters before - remember in the same scene - He says that we are to love one another as He has loved us and that greater love has no man that to lay down his life for his friends. That’s not passive love. That’s not complicit love. That’s active compassion. That’s love that cares too much to not act. This isn’t about blending in with the world and loving them as they are. “Jesus loves you just the way you are” is an incomplete statement. Jesus does love people just the way they are, but He loves them too much to let them stay that way. We have to understand that a revelation of His love should produce repentance. Not just remorse, but repentance. I tell people all the time that it’s okay to not be okay, but it’s not okay to stay that way. Because when you understand God’s heart for you and the lengths to which He went to reconcile you to Himself, living any way but His just isn’t an option. I take issue with people that revel in their brokenness. If you come in to the presence of God broken and give Him access to every part of you, it’s impossible to leave the same way. You may come broken, but you will leave in wholeness with nothing missing and nothing broken. So this isn’t about being conformed to the world.
B. It’s also not about uniformity. We all don’t look the same. Thank God. We don’t all have the same gifts. We serve as different parts of the body to make a whole. That means being united with each other means being in rhythm with each other as our gifts grow and mature. It’s not being copycats and trying to be someone else. It’s about being you and bringing your gift to the body and being where you’re supposed to be. There is God-empowerment grace for you in the part of the body where He’s called you and gifted you. Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 are all about you being who God made you to be and coming into UNITY with the rest of the body. We can’t expect God to bless our gifts any other way except by using them where He designed them to be used, and that is in the body of Christ to which we’ve been called.
C. So how do we get there? Let me give you a head start on doing your part to move us toward the place of unity that God has called us to, that Jesus prayed we’d have, and that the gates of hell are trembling at the thought of. The devil’s not afraid of a big church, but he is afraid of a united church. This has application for the global church, but I believe it’s a word from the Lord to us here today, the staff of KCM, EMIC, VICTORY, KCBC…the Revival Capital of the World. How do WE come into a greater place of unity here on this staff that sets the prophetic tone for others in the body of Christ to follow?
Forgiveness! Mark 11:22-25 tells us that mountain-moving is directly tied to forgiveness granting. Keith Moore said it this way, “Strife is the language of hell.” Division is a distraction that leads to destruction. Save the drama for the theater and do whatever it takes to resist that strife devil that wants to take you out of your position in the body.
Pray in the Spirit…like, a lot.
Jude 20–21 (ESV)
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
Brother Hagin said the Holy Spirit’s not twins. It’s hard to be divided when we’re allowing the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead to pray through us. You can’t be hateful in tongues. And if you don’t have anything good to say, I’d just jump straight to the shaka moshay. Don’t give the enemy room with the authority that God put in YOUR mouth to say anything but His words. And if you don’t know them in English in the moment, that’s okay. There’s a holy alternative.
iii. Connect where you belong and hang on for dear life. Know who you are and be that. Know who you’re not and don’t be that, but celebrate those who are! Where is the Lord calling your gift to be used? I’m not talking about your job description. I’m talking about a spiritual gift. There are a lot of them listed in various parts of the New Testament, but in Romans 12, Paul talks about a few gifts that we can receive by faith and express by the Spirit that aren’t on any job descriptions around here, but they’re things we should all endeavor to do. Service, generosity, exhortation, acts of mercy. What is God putting in you to bring? One of the best exhorters I know is a Transportation Supervisor. You want to see our ONENESS reach new levels? Let’s not just step up in our own gifts, but let’s celebrate the gifts we have in each other. I’m not you, and you’re not me, and thank God! Thank God that He brought us here for such a time as this, to serve in this ministry, with these leaders, to build His Kingdom. Unity like Jesus prayed for starts with a revelation of His love for us and His love for each other. If He didn’t love Jesus more than you, He definitely doesn’t love you more than someone else. Your gift is needed. Your life is valuable, and we need you. We need US to be together moving at the speed of grace with the rhythm of the anointing, the hope of glory, Christ in YOU, and ME, and YOU, and YOU, and YOU, all together in unity chasing what God has for us with mountain-moving, hell-shaking faith.
And that’s the love that proves we’re His. That’s the unity that glorifies Him. And it doesn’t just start with you. And it doesn’t just start with me. It starts with us. As One.