JOHN 17:20-26 WHY JESUS PRAYED FOR OUR UNITY2020 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: John 17:20-26 Why Jesus Prayed For Our Unity

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2020. Well, here in John chapter 17, it's right before Jesus is going to be arrested in Gethsemane, and he spends some time praying to the Father.

And he prays for a variety of things. He prays in anticipation of his return to the Father. He prays for his disciples that are there with him in the garden. But then he also prays for you and I. In verse 20...

He says, And as we read this today, we can understand as believers in Jesus, Jesus here is directly praying for us. We are those who have believed in Jesus through the word of the Apostles.

through the writings of the scriptures, through the apostles and the ministry that has been passed down, handed down from generation to generation after Jesus ascended into heaven. And someone shared the gospel with you. And someone shared the gospel with that person who shared the gospel with you. And someone shared the gospel with that person. And you can follow the chain all the way back to the disciples of Christ.

The gospel that was shared. And so Jesus, seeing that in advance and understanding that there would be multitudes that believed in him through their ministry and

He spent some time praying for them. And as he prays for you and I in this passage, there's a very predominant theme. It's, well, the word one that's used five times in these few verses. Five times he is praying that we would be one in the same way that he and the Father are one. And in that, we can see a huge priority of Jesus. We can see what's really important to him.

And thinking about your life and thinking about us gathering together as a church, Jesus said, Father, please help them to be united. Help them to be one. And so this morning, as we look at this passage, I've titled the message, Why Jesus Prayed for Our Unity. Jesus prayed specifically that we would be united, that we would be one. Now, as we look at these things this morning,

I would just take a moment to say this is not an attempt to address our current, you know, social political situation that we're seeing happen all over. This message isn't really about current events, not that it doesn't apply, but at the same time, I would encourage you to think a little bit smaller. Like, don't automatically get distracted by the current climate, but think about

oneness, unity in direct relationship to the people who are around you. What does it mean to be one? To be one is not talking about a uniformity and that we all have to be forced to be exactly the same, but there is a harmony, you might think of it, where there's a joining together, where there's a single purpose, even though there might be multiple routes.

Where there's a support of one another, even though we might think or do things differently or even hold different thoughts and ideas and beliefs a little bit differently from one another. Commentator Albert Barnes put it this way. He says, it is not the union of nature which is referred to, but the union of plan, of counsel, of purpose, seeking the same objects and manifesting attachment to the same things and a desire to promote the same things.

ends. That's a older English style description of unity or oneness, right? But you get the point that it's not so much that we all are exactly the same, but that we're working together on the same plan. We're on the same agenda. We're working towards the same. Another way that you might put this today is that we're on the same team, right?

I don't know, maybe you wouldn't put it that way this morning because you're like, team, what's a team? I haven't been able to watch a team for months and months. I don't know what teams are anymore. Well, fortunately, the Lord also has given us another illustration, and that is the body. The body is a great illustration of this oneness, of this unity that the Lord was praying for, for you and for I to have together.

Paul tells us in Romans chapter 12, as we have many members in one body, all the members don't have the same function. But we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. You and I as the church are like a body. You and I as believers in Christ are part of the body of Christ.

And it means that there are many of us and there's great diversity. There's different functions and activities of the body. And at the same time, there is a unity. We're all joined together for a single purpose. We're all joined together for a single objective. And we're members of one another. We are part of each other's lives. We're part of each other's spiritual life and growth. This picture of a body gives us much room for diversity.

And so again, it's not that we all have to look identical, say the exact same things, talk the exact same way, do the exact same things. There's many different things that you might be focused on as the Lord leads you. Many different roles that you might play, many different styles that you might serve him and walk with him and love him. But at the same time, although there is this great diversity, all these different functions, all these different activities, all these different ways of walking with the Lord, there

There is a oneness, a single purpose that joins us together. And so again, I would encourage you to think not big world picture, but think more smaller world picture. Are there any Christians in your life that make you so mad that you can't stand to be around them? Let's think about those relationships and unity there. Who makes you that mad? Who is it that irritates you? Who is it that you try to avoid as a believer? You see, those things highlight for us

an issue of priority towards unity for us. There can be in our lives a lack of, even though we know these things, even though we understand the illustration, even though we have the picture and the prayer here, the Lord prioritized unity in a way that you and I may not. And even though we are one, we may not act like it, we may not behave like it, we may not be making that a priority. Maybe think about your home. Is there unity in your home?

Maybe you wish we would consider this like six months ago before there was a quarantine, right? Then you could say, oh yes, unity in my home, but now under quarantine stress. How's the unity in your home? There's great pressure being applied in many situations of our lives. And are we working together? Are we one as believers within our home? Yesterday, Kim and I celebrated a little bit, and we call it, you know,

We're finishing the kitchen. There's still lots of little details to do, but for the past six months, we have been trying to remodel our kitchen, and it wasn't intended to be super fancy, but then situations unfolded, and we were required to basically gut the kitchen and rebuild from scratch. And the past six months has been challenging, and there's been many occasions where we have to remind each other that,

Hey, we're on the same team. Because in the midst of the stress of the project and the stress of the mess and the stress of learning how to do things that we're not comfortable doing, there was occasions where we got to discover out of sync, you know, a disunity between ourselves. It can happen. It happens to all of us. And yet, as Jesus prayed for us,

The predominant thing that he prayed for was oneness, was unity. Why is it that unity is so difficult for us? Let me give you just a couple of thoughts here. There's way more things that we could discuss about this, but two things that come to my mind. Unity is so difficult because someone's will must die.

Someone must lay down their will and say, you know what? This is what I want. These are my goals. This is what I want to happen. This is what I think we should do. But in order for us to be joined together, one of us needs to lay down that will. Somebody's will needs to die in order for there to be unity. And you can think about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as he prayed to the Father. And he said, Lord, Father, if there's any other way,

Let this cup pass from me. But not my will be done, but your will be done. You see, the laying down of the will, the laying down of what I think or what I want for the sake of unity. It's hard for us to give up our will. It's hard for us to give up what we want and our goals and our objectives. It's very difficult. And so often there is not unity because none of us are willing to lay down our will.

We're not willing to let our plans die. We want our plans. And so instead of all getting into one accord, I always like the picture of a Honda Accord, right? We all get in and then we go one direction. We're all together because we're all packed into one accord.

I don't think they even have a cord. Do they have a cord still? Okay, yeah, they have a cord still. We're good. Okay, still a good illustration. Calm down. We're good. Okay, so we're all piled into one car, right? And you're all piled into one car, the Honda Accord, and you say, all right, where are we going? Well, the person behind the driver's wheel is the one who gets to decide. And you're like, I wanted to go to the mall. And Josh is driving. He says, sorry, George talked about In-N-Out. I'm going to In-N-Out. And we all go. Everybody else has to lay down their will because there's one in the driver's seat.

It's an easy thing to do in a car, perhaps, but, well, when we get a chance, then we get out of the car, we get in our own car, and then we go where we want to, right? There's that will that we have, that desire that we have, the plans that we have, and, oh, letting those die for the sake of unity can be quite difficult. The second thing to consider is that unity is difficult because someone's rights must be limited voluntarily. Right?

You could swap out the word right for liberties and pull in the biblical discussion that Paul has in 1 Corinthians 8 and 1 Corinthians 10. The liberties that the church had, that people had within the body of Christ, and yet their liberties were causing others to stumble and causing issues, but they

Even though it was causing problems, the people were insisting on, no, no, I have liberty and I can do this. And so what if it gives you problems? So what if it's hard for you? I have my liberties, I have my rights, and I'm going to insist on those and engage in those. Unity is hard because we have to lay down our will. We have to lay down our liberties, our rights perhaps, for the sake of togetherness, for the sake of oneness.

And understanding that this was difficult for us, Jesus spent this time in his prayer to pray that you and I would be united together, that your family would be one, that the church would be one, that as we join together as believers, we would be united and have a oneness and a harmony together that would really make a difference in the world. And so we're going to walk through this prayer and look at four reasons why Jesus prayed together.

for our unity. The first one is found in verse 21. Here's what it says. Here is Jesus' praise for our unity. He reveals the source of our unity, and it's our relationship with God.

And here we have a hint at the triune nature of God, the unity that exists between Jesus and the Father. Although Jesus is God, and the Father is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and there is this relationship between them, but they're not each other. There's a difference and a distinction between Jesus and the Father. They're different persons, we call them. It's the triune nature of God. It's difficult to explain and understand. At the same time, it's

what is clearly taught throughout the scriptures. And Jesus says, look, I'm in you, Father, and you're in me, and we're united together. And it's this relationship that becomes the model and the source for the followers of Jesus to be united as well, that they also may be one in us. You see, our unity doesn't come from a cause. Our unity doesn't come from an agenda. Our unity really comes from

being in the Father and the Son. It comes from our relationship with the triune nature of God, the triune God that we love and worship. It comes from our walk with Him. And when we are consumed with, immersed by our relationship with the Lord, well, it helps us

It provides what we need to be able to be united together. And then the result will be, he says at the end of verse 21, that the world may believe that you sent me. The result will be when we are united together as the Father and the Son are united together, when we build that kind of relationship in our home, when we build that kind of relationship with each other, when we have that kind of relationship with the believers around us, Jesus says...

It's going to make a difference in the world. It's going to make an impact upon the world. And there will be those who believe that Jesus was sent by the Father because of the very testimony of the unity of Christians. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, the lost world cannot see God, but they can see Christians. And what they see in us is what they will believe about God. If they see love and unity, they will believe that God is love. If they see hatred and division,

they will reject the message of the gospel. Unbelievers can't see God, but they can see you. They can see your marriage relationship. They can see the way that you behave and interrelate as a family. They can see how we treat other believers around us or talk about other believers around us. What is the testimony that

that is being brought forth from your relationship with other believers to the world around us. Unity testifies of Jesus. And so Jesus prayed that we would be united so that people might know him, so that he might be revealed to the world around us.

He said it another way in John chapter 13. As he's instructing his disciples, he says, A new commandment I give to you, love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. And by this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Your relationship with one another as believers is a huge part of the testimony of Christ that is being brought forth from your life. It's a huge part of how the world around you will know God

and will know his love by the way, not just that you treat them, but by the way we treat one another. Unity testifies of Jesus. And so I would encourage you to take a moment to consider, does your home testify of Jesus? Does your home bring about the testimony, the revelation of the love of God, of the reality of Jesus Christ and your relationship with him, your relationship with other believers in your life?

whether it be in the workplace or in the community or at the church? Does it testify of Jesus? Does it speak volumes to the world around you of who Jesus is? Again, unity is difficult because someone's will must die. But will you be willing to lay down your will, to lay down your goals and your plans and your desires so that Jesus might be known? Would you be willing for your will to die, to die to yourself for his sake?

Would you be willing to limit your rights, to limit your liberties for the sake of the testimony of Jesus? Unity testifies of Jesus. Now, what do we do if we look at our home, if we look at our relationships and we recognize that unity is not testifying of Jesus in our lives? Well, I would encourage you to do what Jesus did and pray. Ask the Father for unity. Ask the Father for help, for clarity, to lead you

That you might be united with the believers that he's placed around you. Well, the second thing we'll consider is found in verse 22. Here's the second reason why Jesus prayed for our unity. And that is because unity embraces God's glory. Unity embraces God's glory. Verse 22. Jesus says that the Father has given him glory. Glory.

And he says, that glory I have passed along to them. What is this glory that Jesus has been given by the Father? That's a deep subject, and we could talk about it for a long time. I'll summarize it into two parts. There's a future glory, and there's a present glory. The future glory, well, we know there's a day coming when we will all be with Jesus in the fullness of his glory. Paul talks about this in Colossians 3, verse 4.

When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. That at the return of Christ, he's going to come back in glory. Jesus described it in Luke chapter 21. He says, they will see the Son of Man coming in the cloud with power and great glory. And I can't read that verse without thinking of great glory. Great glory. Great glory.

I think if my name was Great Glory, I would read this verse in every service. Jesus is coming back with Great Glory, right? Great Glory. Great Glory. He's coming back with the saints in all His glory, and we're going to be with Him. The glory that He has from the Father, we're going to participate in that at His return, at His appearance.

Revelation chapter 19 talks about him being clothed in the robe that's dipped with blood. His name is called the Word of God. He's riding on the horse and the armies in heaven clothed in linen followed with him. We're going to be with Jesus in glory in that future. But then there's also a present glory. And again, there's many ways we could think about this, but the one that came to mind was Ephesians chapter 1, where Paul talks about the blessings that we have in Christ.

And the glory that Jesus is receiving from the Father includes the cross and the effects of the cross for all who believe in him. And he speaks about in Ephesians chapter 1, our place, that we've been predestined to adoption as sons, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace. As you think about the glory, you could think about the glory of his grace.

The glory of his grace. Grace is a glorious aspect of our Lord's ministry. We embrace God's glory by uniting together in the grace of God. Receiving the forgiveness from the Lord, but then also extending that forgiveness. The glory that he received from the Father, he passed on to us. And we have the glory of now ministering like Christ.

and showing grace like Christ, and forgiving like Christ, and accepting differences just like Christ accepts our differences, and bearing with immaturity just as the Lord bears with our immaturity. These are things that are important to understand and found in specifically 1 Corinthians and the book of Romans. It talks about the bearing with one another, the putting up with one another, the forgiving of one another,

as Christ has done towards us. But it comes back to this glory of grace. Pastor David Guzik says, You see, when there is disunity between us, a lot of times we have forgotten our place.

And we're treating others as lesser or as different because we've forgotten that we're all equal. It's all by the grace of God that we might be at different places in maturity. We might have different roles and responsibilities and different actions and ministries. We might have different thoughts and ideas. And again, there is that great diversity. And yet we can join together in unity together.

and even bearing with one another in the annoyances and grievances and difficulties because we all come to Christ through grace, receiving his favor and kindness that we do not deserve. Unity embraces God's glory. It manifests the grace of God as we join together in spite of our differences and in spite of the difficulties. Does your home embrace the glory of God? Does your relationship with others around you

embrace the grace of God and celebrate that we are one in him. Well, moving on to verse 23, we get the third reason. Unity displays God's love. Jesus prayed for our unity because unity is a billboard of the love of God. In verse 23,

Jesus goes on to say, 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. Again, Jesus talks about the unity that we have with him. He says, I'm going to be in them, those who believe. And Father, you're in me. They may be perfect in one, in unity. And this idea of perfect, it doesn't speak of sinlessness. It speaks of completeness or maturity.

Here's an important thing to understand about unity. Unity is an important part of our maturity. And if we are not united together, we are going to continue to be less mature than we could be. We're not going to grow and develop as believers as we could as if we were united together. Paul talks about this in Ephesians chapter 4.

That the whole body is joined and knit together by what every joint supplies. All the different people in your life that God has attached to you, they're all an important part of the maturing process that he wants to accomplish in you. And we as a church, we grow according to the effective working by which each part does its share, and it causes growth in the body for the edifying of itself in love. We are made perfect in unity. We progress in unity.

And without unity, we don't progress the way that we would if we were united together. But Jesus goes on here in verse 23 to say that the world may know that you have sent me. Again, reiterating, this is a testimony to the world. But here's the next part of the testimony that Jesus wants to be declared. That you, Father, have loved them as you have loved me. And this is a powerful truth. The Lord is saying that as the Father loves Jesus, the Father loves you.

And unity in our lives and unity in our relationships displays that love. It models that love. It shows us the love that the Father has for us. And it shows the world around us the love that the Father has for us, just as the Father loves Jesus. H.A. Ironside, in reacting to this, said, what an amazing truth this is. Here I find there's no difference between the love of the Father and

Love the Father has for his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love that he has for his children of faith in Jesus Christ. We're recipients of love from the Father in the same way that Jesus is a recipient of the Father's love. But we're not just recipients. Then we're extensions. We get to receive the love. And the unity that we have as we join together displays that love because we don't just receive it, but then we love others more.

in the same way that the Father has loved us. Well, finishing it up in verse 24, we get the fourth reason for us to consider this morning. Jesus prayed for our unity because unity foreshadows our future. In verse 24, he says, "'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.'"

Jesus says, Father, I'm praying that they're going to be with me wherever I am and that they're going to get to be there to behold my glory. You love me from the foundation of the world. This was part of the plan from the very beginning. And so, Father, I'm praying that they may be with me where I am, that my saints, my children, those who believe in me will always be with me. And we know that is the promise that Jesus gives to his followers. We are going to be with Jesus, but not just with

We're going to be with Jesus with each other, all of us. And again, those that anger us and those that irritate us and those that get under our skin and those that, you know, we have such difficulties and problems with, listen, you're going to be sitting next to them for the rest of eternity. You think that the Lord put them in your life just for this time? It's not just for this time. You're connected to people that you're going to be connected with for all eternity. So let's learn unity. Let's develop unity.

That unity, that oneness, that love for one another as the Lord has for us. It's difficult because someone's will must die. It's difficult because, yes, someone's liberties, someone's rights must be limited voluntarily. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8, "'If food makes my brother stumble, "'I will never again eat meat, "'lest I make my brother stumble. "'I'll limit my liberties for the sake of my brother, "'for the sake of unity.'"

that we would grow together, develop together, and mature together as believers in Jesus. Jesus prayed for our unity because he knew we were going to need some help. It's not an easy thing. There's going to be some highs and lows. There's going to be some dips and valleys and mountaintops. But how sweet it is when the brethren dwell together in unity. It testifies of Jesus. It embraces the glory of God. It displays God's love and it foreshadows unity.

our future with him. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you again for your grace, the glory of your grace that is extended to us. And we pray, God, that you would help us. Help us, Lord, first of all, to identify areas in our lives where, Lord, unity is not where it should be. Oneness, Lord, is more dividedness. And I pray, God, as you reveal those things, that you would help us to turn from our sinfulness, our selffulness, our

And Lord, that we would reprioritize unity according to the priority you set. Lord, as you prayed for us, it was the number one thing you prayed for. As your followers, as your believers, Lord, we need to learn how to love one another, how to dwell together, how to walk together in worship of you and in celebration of your work in our lives. And so God, would you grow us, would you draw us near to you? And as we focus on you and...

have in you the source, Lord, of our unity. Lord, may we be united. May we be reunited. I pray that you would break down walls and build up strong, healthy relationships between your people, members of your body, that we'd be able to join together for your purposes and for your glory. We pray this in Jesus' name.

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