THE PRAYERS OF JESUS FOR UNITY

John Chapter Seventeen

Sermon of the Week#200526—July 1, 2005

The seventeenth chapter of the gospel according to John is the chapter that has the prayer of Jesus for unity. Different cases of unity are found in this chapter. For one thing there is unity in the creation of man.

THE CREATION OF MAN

Twice in this chapter the Lord reminded the Father that He, “…loved Him before the world was.” And again He said, “…before the foundation of the world.” Before the world and before us, there was God. And God said, “Let us make man in our image.” There was more than one person involved in the creation of man. Let us make man. The Apostle John tells us, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”

Years ago it was thought that creation took about two billion years, then they upped it to four billion, and now it has been said it took six billion. We have all heard of the Peking, the Neanderthal man, and the Java man, and a host of others.

However I must depend on the word of the scholars. I have consulted two scholars on the matter of the creation of man: Doctor Moses and Doctor Paul. Doctor Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in his words and works. That being true He must have known how they made the pyramids. That is something that modern-day man doesn’t know. Doctor Paul wrote his doctoral thesis and called it the Book of Romans. I would like to see somebody top that.

Listen to the testimony of these scholars on the creation of man:

Number one: Doctor Moses said that God made man of the dust of the earth. Doctor Paul agreed; he said that the first man is of the earth earthy and God made of one all men that dwell on the face of the earth.

Number two: Doctor Moses said of the earthman that God made that he breathed into his nostrils. It does not say that He breathed into the nostrils of a tadpole. Doctor Paul in talking to the intellectuals on Mars Hill said that God gave that earthy man breath.

Number three: Doctor Moses said that the man He gave breath became a living soul and Doctor Paul said on Mars Hill that God gave the earthy man life.

Number four: Furthermore Doctor Moses said that God called the man He made Adam. Doctor Paul called him the same thing. He called the earthy man the first Adam.

Again we notice that there was not only unity on the creation of man but there was unity of the Trinity on salvation.

UNITY OF THE TRINITY IN SALVATION

            It was God the Father’s idea to send Jesus to die on the cross. In the Garden of Eden, God said, “The seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent and the serpent shall bruise His heel.” In this prayer Jesus said, “…life eternal was to know God and Him whom Thou didst send even Jesus Christ.” God said, “Somebody has to go and redeem the human race.” God sent Jesus to do it.

            We know that Jesus agreed with this plan because at that great Summit Meeting on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah spoke to Jesus of His decease that He would accomplish at Jerusalem. Not only was there unity in the matter of salvation, but also there was unity also in humanity and divinity of Jesus.

HUMANITY AND DIVINITY OF JESUS

In this prayer Jesus reminded the Father that He had sent Him. When Gabriel made the birth announcement of Jesus to Mary, he said, “The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee wherefore the Holy thing that is begotten shall be called the Son of God.” Jesus was human in the flesh and divine in Spirit. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. His flesh always submitted to the will of the divine.

Sometimes the flesh was in the ascendancy and at other times the Spirit. When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane it was His flesh that said, “Let this cup pass away from Me.” But it was His Spirit that said, “Not My will but Thine be done.” The flesh always agreed with the Spirit. After fasting forty days the Devil tempted Him to turn stones into bread. This was a great temptation. His flesh wanted to grab a stone, turn it into a loaf of bread and eat it. It was His divinity that said, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” And the flesh agreed with the divine. It was a great temptation when the Devil took Him to the pinnacle of the Temple and asked Him to jump. The flesh said, “Jump”. The Spirit said, “Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord Thy God.” When the Devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, what a temptation! The Devil showed Him the United States. He showed Him the Statue of Liberty; he showed Him a country from the prairie to the purple mountains majesty, from sea to shining sea and he said, “Jesus, it is all yours. You can have it if you worship me.” The flesh said, “Take it.” But the Spirit said, “Thou shalt worship the Lord Thy God and Him only shalt Thou serve.” There was unity with the flesh and the Spirit in every temptation. Not only was their unity in the humanity and the divinity of Jesus, but also there was unity also between Jesus and His Apostles in their view of the word of God.

UNITY OF THE APOSTLES AND THE TRINITY ON THE WORD

            Jesus prayed, “I have manifested unto them the word which Thou hast given unto Me and they have kept Thy word.” The Apostles all agreed for Jesus said, “I have given unto them Thy word and they received them.”

            To make sure the Apostles gave us the right message He had already told them, “When He the Holy Spirit is come He will guide you into all the truth and bring to your remembrance all things that I said unto to you.” Jesus could not trust the finite memory of the Apostles so He promised to send the Holy Spirit to remind them what He said. God in His providence has made sure when we read the Bible we are reading His word.

It was Paul who put up this red flag regarding other books that claim to be of God when he said, “If any man preach any other gospel than that which we preached, let him be accursed.” Not only was there unity with the Trinity and the Apostles on the word of God, but also there was unity between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in evangelism.

UNITY IN EVANGELISM

            Jesus in His prayer prayed, “As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so sent I them into the world.” The Father sent the Son and the Son sent the Apostles. What Jesus sent the Apostles to do is spelled out clearly. He told them, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” The job of the Church is saving souls.

            He also gave them credentials. He said they could speak in tongues, take up serpents, and if they drank any deadly thing it would in no wise harm them. They went forth and preached everywhere the Lord working with them confirming the word by the signs that followed. Since the word was confirmed by those miraculous signs the need for miracles is past. The word does not need to be confirmed again. Some think the miracles are still needed, but they are choosy as to which ones. While they claim to speak in tongues they would not touch a rattlesnake with a ten-foot pole, and there is no way they would drink poison without a stomach pump handy. If we need any credentials today as to why we bring this broadcast to thousands of you, our credentials are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, James and Jude. Then notice there was not only unity in evangelism but there was unity on the Judgment Day.

UNITY ON THE JUDGMENT DAY

There is a unanimous decision as to who will preside on the Judgment Day. In this prayer Jesus said the Father had, “…given Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom Thou hast given Me I should give eternal life.” Paul on Mars Hill informed them, “God had appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through that Man whom He has ordained inasmuch as He hath raised Him from the dead.”

Jesus also said that He would be the Judge on that day when John recorded the words of Jesus when He said, “For neither doth the Father judge any man, but He hath given all judgment unto the Son; that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father that sent Him.”

According to Jesus you cannot honor the Heavenly Father unless you honor Jesus at the same time. These statements give verification as to whom it is that shall sit on the Great White Throne as recorded by John in Revelation, “From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no room for them.” Then there is that final event where we learn that if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire. Then again there was not only unity on the Judgment Day there was unity in the Kingdom of Darkness.

UNITY OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS

Jesus mentioned this when He said in His prayer, “I have given them Thy word and the world hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil one.” The Devil is opposed to everything in the program of salvation of the world. And he is not alone. Every area of the kingdom of darkness is united in the program to damn your soul. Paul mentions several areas in the Devil’s kingdom: principalities, powers, rulers of this world’s darkness, a veritable host of wickedness in high places. King Herod and Pilate were enemies but they united in their effort to crucify Jesus. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were enemies yet they united in their desire to crucify Jesus.

Jesus did not want to take the Apostles out of the world at that time and in a similar manner, the Lord does not want to take the Church out of the world at this time. If the Lord would remove the Church today from the world before His Second Coming and leave the world to its own devices, the earth would drown in its own blood. We are all aware what happens when there is a disruption of civil authority; vandals begin to loot and rape. Take the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and the individual Christian out of the world and the world would split wide open like a rotten apple.

When Noah and his family went into the Ark, God waited for seven more days and then He shut the door, and the flood came. When the angels led Lot, his wife and two daughters out of Sodom, there were no more righteous people left in Sodom and Gomorrah; the fire fell and burned up the homo capital of history. If the Church were suddenly taken out of this world the effect would be the same as if all the lights were turned off. The effect would be the same as if all purifying salt were removed. The earth and all of its inhabitants would rot.

            The kingdom of darkness is just as real as any physical nation. The Devil has convinced millions that he does not exist. The only reason you cannot see the Devil and many of the demons that surround us at all times is because they live in a different frequency. Turn on the radio to the AM dial and you hear this program. If you turn the switch to the FM dial you may get another program at the same place on the dial as the AM station. It is all in the difference of the frequency. If we could somehow switch from the physical frequency to the spiritual frequency you would see the Devil and a host of demons leering at you. Their forked tongues and their cold-blooded eyes with that malevolent gaze concentrated on you. They hate you with a hatred that can come only from the depths of the bottomless pit. However in that spiritual frequency the Christian would also see a host of the angels of God of whom the scripture tells us are, “…ministering spirits sent forth to minister for the sake of them that shall inherit eternal salvation.” But then there was not only unity in the Kingdom of Darkness, but there is also unity among the followers of Jesus.

UNITY OF THE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS

            Jesus also prayed not only for the Apostles, but, “…all them that would believe on Him through their word. That they may all be one as Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.” Jesus prayed for the unity of all in His Church. That prayer was answered on the Day of Pentecost fifty days after the resurrection. The Apostles that day were baptized in the Holy Spirit and given the power to speak in about seventeen languages that were assembled that day. The assembly itself inquired, “How do they do this?” Every man was able to hear in his own language wherein he was born. That by the way is the only example of what tongue speaking was like in New Testament days. Do you know anyone who can do that today?

            Peter preached as the Spirit gave him utterance the story of the trial, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. He told the audience that their sin had killed God’s Son and then they inquired as to what they must do. Since they already believed Peter’s story of the gospel, he did not tell them, “Since you already believe, you don’t have to do anything else. Believing is enough.” No! That is not what he said. He told that believing audience to, “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” After telling them this, it does not say that he said, “When you are baptized it is an outward sign of an inward faith.” If anyone thinks that is what was said, they did not get it from the Bible.

            Actually after he told them about repentance and baptism for the remission of sins the inspired record says, “They then that gladly received his word were baptized and there were added unto them about three thousand souls and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine, and in fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.” The final verse of Acts chapter two says, “The Lord added unto them day by day those that were saved.” The prayer of Jesus for the unity of all who believed on Him by the word of the Apostles was answered. They were all One. There was not a single Protestant or Catholic denomination among them.

            Evidently, the Lord wanted it to continue that way. The Apostle Paul advised the Church at Ephesus to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one Faith, one baptism and God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in you all.”

            Evidently, something had gone haywire. What happened? It seems like a mystery. How did the Devil persuade people who love the Lord to divide up into so many denominations? After all we all use the same Bible. It may help to clear up the mystery when we remember how Paul said, “I make known to you the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man, neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.” Paul said he received it and then on different occasions he said, “I delivered that which I also received.” He received it and delivered it. We have received it from the Apostles. If division among people who love the Lord happens, it is because they have not delivered that which they have received. They have delivered something else. They did not get it from the Bible.

Mid the storms and doubt of unbelief we fear--Stand a book eternal that the world holds dear

Through the restless ages it remains the same--‘Tis the book of God and the Bible is its name

Oh the Grand Old Book and the Dear Old Faith are the rock on which I stand

Oh the Grand Old Book and the Dear Old Faith are the Hope of every land.