Sermon Tone Analysis

Better Together

The sum is better than the parts.

That’s why there isn’t an “Ocean’s 1.”

A team that works together, people that know each other, that push forward together, that pull in the same direction together its a powerful thing!

What’s true of a band of thieves and con artists is true of Christians.

We work better together.

When we get into small communities, when there are four, five, or six of us working alongside each other, the results are more than four, five, or six individuals.

We are better together.

Not just because other believers pouring into you the promises of a risen Savior brings rest, but also because believers coming together around the promises of God bring relationships.

But that might be a little overwhelming.

Because, let’s be honest.

Making connections, real connections is hard.

It takes time.

It takes investment.

It takes risk.

It takes doing things that might be outside your comfort zone.

It’s dangerous!

I mean, what if the person you are trying to build connection with ends up not reciprocating and holding back on their struggles and joys?

What happens when that person ends up being fake?

What happens when they end up betraying your confidence?

What happens when their needs become just so overwhelming that you just can’t do it anymore?

Share about a time when you enjoyed a really deep, meaningful connection with someone.

Jesus knew how difficult meaningful relationships would be.

I mean, he was about to be betrayed by one of his closest friends.

A betrayal that he knew was coming.

So, he gets it.

In fact, meaningful connections are so important to him, so top of mind, that the night he was arrested, the night before he died, he spent time praying for them.

More specifically, he prayed for your relationships.

Listen to this prayer from Jesus:

Judas had left to sell Jesus for 30 coins.

The disciples had eaten the final passover with Jesus and watched as Jesus began a new, one-sided contract with them where they ate and he gave them forgiveness.

This section is the last in a prayer that fills all of John 17.

First he prays for himself.

A good prayer.

Since in the next 24 hours he would face Satan’s worst, he would bear the sins of the world, and God himself would turn his back on Jesus.

He then prays for his disciples.

They would face temptation and persecution.

Jesus, their guardian, friend, and protection, would soon ascend into heaven and leave them behind.

They would go out into the world: continue the work that they had begun under Jesus’ direction.

And then he prays for people who would never see him face-to-face.

Notice this phrase, .

“Those who believe in me through their message.”

That’s those who would come to faith because of the gospel record in John, through the writings of Peter, John, James, even Paul.

One commentator says this about Jesus,

The eye of Jesus scans the centuries, and presses to his loving heart all his true followers, as if they had all be saved at this very moment.

List at least three observations that comfort you as you consider that Jesus scanned the centuries and pressed you to his heart.

List at least three observations that comfort you as you consider that Jesus scanned the centuries and saw you so that he could press you to his heart.

And what is the purpose for which he prays?

To what end? .

Three things stand out there as Jesus’ purpose.

They may be one.

They may be in us.

So that the world may know.

You’ll find those three destinations throughout these seven verses.

He says them each in different ways.

But, here’s one way to think of it.

We can be one, only because we are in God.

The world sits up and takes notice, not because they recognize Jesus - it’s one of John’s themes that the world did not recognize Jesus (, ) - but because they see the

unity of believers.

That unity is powerful enough to draw people into Jesus so that they might know that he was sent by God.

Which is why division among believers is so heartbreaking.

It’s not that we wish that there were tens of thousands of people in one church so that we could really belt out Amazing Grace.

It’s not just that we wish that there weren’t all these different buildings and different divisions so that we could come together.

The real problem with division among believers is that it robs God of glory that’s due his name. .

Have you ever been in that conversation with

someone who is asking about faith and they reply, “If God is so powerful, if this message is so important, why are there so many Christian denominations?”

And it just takes the wind out of your sails.

There’s no good answer to that.

It breaks God’s heart, too.

It robs him of glory and it is an abuse of the love .

But the same is true for our internal divisions, too.

The divisions that happen inside of these walls.

The gossip that so easily leaks out of our mouth and erodes the reputation of another believer.

The anger that springs up when you don’t get your way or you don’t get to express your opinion.

And on the flip side of the very same coin: the “unity” that comes from you never speaking up, never engaging.

A “unity” that comes from sweeping differences under the rug and hiding them in a dark corner is just as corrosive to God’s reputation, his glory and so corrosive to our relationship with him.

Division among believers eats away at our unity with Jesus.

Until the only thing that exists is the division and not the unity.

There are real consequences to not addressing a sin that stands between you and another believer.

There is real risk in letting that thing, whatever it might be, stand between you and one of our ministers here.

Letting it sit and fester only proves the point.

It tears unity apart.

Imagine if Paul had not stood up to Peter when Peter was wrong.

It would have continued to look like unity, like they were all getting along, but letting that sin fester would have eventually corroded unity until there was nothing left.

So, how do we get to the place of unity, a place of connected relationships?

The quick answer is to jump into a small group.

That’s the easy answer.

It’s easy because you can hop from one small group to another - just like you can jump from church to church.

When relationships in the one begin to break down, when you quickly move on to the next one, that’s a symptom of a deeper sin.

If you find yourself not engaging in, not participating in, not longing for relationships with other believers that look like the relationship between the Father and the Son, if you don’t have #1, then can you really say you have #2?

Jesus’ prayer here says, #2 cannot exist without #1.

You are separating yourself from God if you are holding back in your relationships with other believers.

But, that’s why Jesus came in the first place.

() Look again at the timing of this prayer.

He doesn’t pray for you the night before he walks to Jericho.

He doesn’t pray that we would be one as we are one in him the night before he preaches on the hillside.

He prays for you the night before he dies.

He prays that he would be in you, that you would be in him.

That our relationship would be as close, as loving, as powerful, as transformational as his relationship with the Father less than 24 hours from when he would breathe his last.

From when he would give himself in your place.