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Summary
The sermon is about the call for unity among Christians, based on Jesus' prayer in John 17:20-23. The pastor emphasizes the importance of unity in the body of Christ and how it is a testimony to the world that God exists and that Jesus is real. The sermon also highlights the role of love in unity and how it is the essence of being united as a body of Christ.
Sermon transcription
I will read from The passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 it says, "For I received from the Lord what I also passed onto you." The Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed. He took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
Our text for today is found in John 17:20 to 23 and I entitle this message call for unity. It is Jesus prayer for the unity of the church, unity of his disciples and may the Lord guide us as a start of the year with this message. So let us read together John 17:20 to 23.
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message that all of them may be one. Father just as you are in me and I am in you, may they be also in us so that the world may believe that you sent me. I had given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me so that they may be brought into complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
So this uh usually as I said last Sunday we start the year with prayer and fasting week. But for this year there is what we call a week of prayer for Christian unity and that is being celebrated worldwide from January 18 to 25.
So Jesus was praying for a supernatural kind of unity. It is a call beyond being organized as churches as denominations to cooperate with one another to work together in harmony it is beyond those thoughts or those ideas that Jesus prayed for unity. The essence of this prayer is in the unity of the father, of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen. This is divine unity. This is intimate relationship that the father uh to Jesus they are experiencing and then from Jesus to us we are experiencing.
Amen.
So we can see his deep love and concern for the disciples and his deep love and concern for you and me.
In verse 21 it says there that all of them may be one. All of them meaning the believers may be one. And then Jesus said, "Father, just as you are in me and I am in you and they are in us.
I ah you are in me. I am in you and they are in us." That is the essence of the unity the unity that uh that shared in the God head.
Jesus is praying that this unity is also shared not only among us but us together with Jesus and Jesus together with the father.
Amen.
And then verse 23 Jesus continued. He said I in them meaning Jesus in the believers.
And then you in me, Father, you are in me. And then he said here, very important so that they may be brought to complete unity.
The presence of the father to Jesus down to the presence of Jesus in each of our lives and then together it binds us in unity.
Amen.
One of the main for me the main reason that I am hopeful for this year is this passage brothers and sisters. Because Jesus already prayed right Jesus already prayed for his disciples. Jesus already prayed for the future disciples uh before it happens. You know Jesus is uh um advancing the prayers of the future believers. Jesus is advancing his prayers 2000 years ago thinking about you and me at this present generation of believers.
Amen. He was thinking of you and me. He was thinking of what we need to be able to live our lives. He was thinking about um uh the the most important thing that we need in our lives today is the preservation of our fellowship of our relationship of our unity in the body of Christ.
Amen.
It gives, you know, it makes me hopeful. It gives me comfort. It gives me encouragement. It gives me such an assurance that he will take care of each and every one of us in 2026.
Amen.
In this challenges that we have, we don't know what uh is in store for this year, right? But as as they say, united we stand, divided we fall.
But the the essence of unity is important in in this passage. That's why we are going to talk about this because it's not just any unity. There is a a meaning of what it means to be united as body of Christ.
So there are three things here if you can look at it. The first is the call for radical unity verses 20 to 23 our unity is the message to the world verses 23 verse 23 and also include there verse 21. And then the desire for us or Jesus desire for us to experience God's glory in verse 22.
So let us start with the first one. Call for radical unity in verse uh 20 and verse 23.
So Jesus was was praying for a supernatural kind of unity. It is a call beyond you know uh being organized as churches as denominations to cooperate with one another to work together in harmony it is beyond those uh thoughts or those ideas that Jesus prayed for unity.
The essence of this prayer is in the unity of the father, of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen. This is divine unity. This is intimate relationship that the father uh to Jesus they are experiencing and then from Jesus to us we are experiencing.
Amen.
Um in verse 21 it says there that all of them may be one. All of them meaning the believers may be one. And then Jesus said, "Father, just as you are in me and I am in you and they are in us.
I ah you are in me. I am in you and they are in us." That is the essence of the unity the unity that uh that shared in the God head.
Jesus is praying that this unity is also shared not only among us but us together with Jesus and Jesus together with the father.
Amen.
And then verse 23 Jesus continued. He said I in them meaning Jesus in the believers.
And then you in me, Father, you are in me. And then he said here, very important so that they may be brought to complete unity.
The presence of the father to Jesus down to the presence of Jesus in each of our lives and then together it binds us in unity.
Amen.
I will not further explain that because that is really something that you and I need to reflect on deeply.
Amen. What it means for you to have the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life that guides you to have harmonious life together with the believer with the the body of Christ with one another we as a community and fulfill the the purpose of God in each of us.
So unity in Christ we Jesus prayed for unity but it is centered on him it is not centered on us it is not church centric unity but it is what it is Christ centric unity.
That is the prayer of Jesus Christ uh as he said uh for those who believe in in in verse 20 he said for those who believe in me through their message for those people who believe in Christ unity for them for those who receive the message of the disciples uh through the message of the disciples they received me they believe in me so it is all about the lord Jesus Christ centered on him.
Um it It is not unity if it is not focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not unity if it is not about our faith in him. His saving grace. It is not unity. It is about unity on something else or on someone else.
Amen. Everything emanates emanates from him the Lord Jesus Christ.
Unity in truth. Verse 17 says, "Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth." So here in the same chapter Jesus said, "Sanctify your people Lord, sanctify your your people father by the truth. Your word is truth."
But he also said in uh 14: 6, what did he say? John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the truth, right? Jesus is the truth and no one can come to the father except through him.
And then uh lastly unity in love. In Colossians 3:14 it says and over all these virtues put on love which binds them all together in what?
In perfect unity. It's it's important because earlier in verse 23 of our passage it says the presence of the father in Jesus and is uh overflowing through the presence of Jesus in our lives brings us to complete unity.
But in Colossians it says um put on love that binds us together in perfect unity complete unity and perfect unity unity through the love of Jesus to us unity through the love of the father by sending Jesus Christ to us and brings us to the second point of this uh passage which is in verse 23 uh our unity is the message to the world.
The unity is is the love that is to be uh to be to the for the world to know that God exists that he is alive that Jesus is real you know because how can uh the presence of God be tangible in our actions through love and that action through love brings harmony and unity and that is the testimony for the world to see that we are or we belong to the Lord or we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 23 says um again it says I in them I Jesus Christ in you and me that brings believers to complete unity and then verse 23 um says then the world will know that you sent me.
So the presence of the Lord in our relationship through loving one another we let the world see that the father sent the Lord Jesus Christ and then it continues ver 23 by saying and have loved them even as you have loved me love is the perpates unity.
We have unity because we have the love of Christ. Amen.
The idea of living side by side and being able to to support one another, being able to serve one another, being able to overcome our differences, it doesn't mean that we do not fight. It doesn't mean that we do not have arguments. But we are overcomers. We are able to overcome those difficulties and challenges. Why? Because we have the common denominator which is the L O V E of Jesus Christ in us.
If we have experienced the love of Christ it will it won't be hard to overcome our differences, our uh hindrances to the relationship. Amen.
John 4 134 to 35 says, "A new command I give you, love one another as I have loved you. So you must love one another.
As as I have loved you, so you must love one another.
Uh I interpret it as Jesus saying, because you have received my love, you have experienced my love.
the love my love that you have experience is the love that you can give to others amen this is not my brand of love this is not your brand of love that we are talking about we have loves you know uh next month we will talk about loves the four kind of loves right pastor dan uh few months ago talk about the four loves store gat Peleo, heros agape, right? We have different kinds of loves but this is agape love. Amen. This is the kind of love that Jesus gave us. So we already have it. It is not something that we are still uh trying to acquire. Jesus gave us his love and that is the kind of love that he says so you must love one another and then he said by this everyone will know.
Do you think everyone will know when we when they see us as a community of loving one another people? Do you think they will everybody will know? I think let us qualify what Jesus say here. Everyone will know that you are my disciples because of the love that you have for one another.
There are people who who do not believe. There are people who will reject. There are people who will not see the love. That's the reality of life. But there are people when once they see us uh experiencing and sharing this love that these people touched by the Lord that they will know it will testify in their hearts that there is true God living God because I can see in the relationship of these people that God is real. Amen.
Amen.
And that is I think uh one of the things that we will pursue in 2026. You know that people may know that God has sent Jesus Christ. That people may know that we are his disciples because of the love that we have for one another.
Not superficial love not love that is only talking talking not love that is uh empty promises but love that is based on real relationships.
Sometimes relationships can hurt us but it's not about avoiding the problems of relationships. It is about uh our attitude when we are experiencing difficulties in our relationship. What is my attitude towards having problem with my brother or sister?
Shall I do my best effort in order to preserve our relationship? Or would I be uh the same with some people who will run away the slightest problem in relationship?
Right? There are people to the easiest answer is to to run away and say I don't like I don't like it so therefore I don't want to see you anymore or I don't want to to have a anything to do with you anymore but that is not what the Lord is telling us amen we are his people Jesus is our Lord and Savior if I love him then I would love my brothers and my sisters no matter what.
It's like in the in um in marriage, right? Because I love the Lord, I love my wife no matter what. Or I love my husband no matter what because I love the Lord. Amen.
So in this uh um passage in John 13 where Jesus said um um love one another so that the world may know that you are my disciples. This is a culmination of the uh washing of the feet. No. So in chapter 13, this is the passage where Jesus uh wash the feet of the disciples and he said in verse 15 uh I do this so I wash your feet. What what is the reason why Jesus wash the feet of the disciples to show them uh what is the kind of leadership that Jesus have right the kind of leadership that loves the kind of leadership that is humbly serving humble servant the kind of leadership that that does not put himself above others but uh give his love to them. Amen. And then he said in verse 15, I have set you an example. He said it's not I'm not doing this for a show. I'm doing this so that you will also do the same thing.
So what's the point here brothers and sisters? Jesus prayer for unity. For unity is also our prayer for unity. Jesus set the example. We will also follow not because not just because Jesus prayed we do not pray anymore for the unity of the body of Christ even more so because that is our challenge. Amen.
Can you say amen to that?
Amen.
So this year we will pray for the unity of the body of Christ not only for our church but for the body of Christ. This is important in uh in the overall mission of God in reaching the world. for Christ and for us I was thinking about our critical role being evangelicals you know in praying for Christian unity there is a critical role we play why do we call ourselves evangelicals who are we
Okay so we go to the next slide ah one more yan So who are we to pray for the unity of the body of Christ? To pray for Christian unity we are uh part of the movement that is not denominational.
When we call when we say ourselves evangelicals, we are the 25 to 40% of all Christians in the world.
So it doesn't mean international ministries.
No, it's not about the name.
Uh among Protestants, Protestant churches, there are evangelicals in their ranks. Okay. Among Orthodox churches, there are evangelicals in their ranks. Among the reformed churches, the um the Dutch reformed churches, there are evangelicals in their rans. Among the Baptist, the Methodist, the Pentecostals, and even Catholics, there are evangelicals in their ranks.
I have met them. Uh some priest I have met and they are really true to uh the the word of God and they are not following the erroneous doctrines of their traditions and they are priests. So what can I say? They are my brothers. They are brothers and they uh I consider them as evangelicals.
So what does it mean to be called evangelicals? It means that we believe that we are saved by believing and receiving the finished work of Jesus on the cross when we say prayer for unity.
So brothers and sisters because we are evangelical when we say prayer for unity it means unity that people may believe that salvation comes by the sacrifice and death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Amen. There are people who call themselves Christians but they would say no all other people from other faiths they may believe in Allah they may believe in Buddha they may believe in they may be Hindus they may be here and there they can be saved no I don't think so because as evangelicals we believe that there is only one way there is no other way to the father amen John 14:6 as we have read earlier also as evangelicals we believe on the emphasis of personal conversion we call ourselves born again why because we uh received and accepted Jesus uh sacrifice on the cross uh by faith we receive it and then Jesus gave us new life and then our life has changed its direction.
So we call ourselves we are born again spiritually uh being given you birth. Uh the theological term there is regenerated. We are regenerated. We are not renewed. We are changed. We are transformed regenerated. If you are not regenerated then you are not evangelicals because you might say I was born into the Christian family therefore I a Christian right people would say my parents are Christians therefore I'm Christian I don't think that is uh the message of the gospel the gospel says you decide for yourself whether you accept the the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ not based on your parents because they are Christians not based on because you are baptized so therefore you became Christian not based on your good works and and and you believe in Jesus and you have good works.
you born again because you have believed that the only way that you are saved you are forgiven of your sins is because of the Jesus offer of salvation through the cross.
We also acknowledge the Bible as the ultimate authority and we as evangelicals focus on evangelism and discipleship. I wrote these things brothers and sisters being evangelical uh is defined in so many other ways but I wrote this uh just to bear in my mind that when we say I pray for the unity of of delivers all over the world I pray for unity that everyone will focus on Christ amen our prayer for unity is Christ centric as I said earlier it is not about us our denomination our is not about I am what do I do you know tove uh the church to serve the kingdom of God it is about who Jesus is what he has done and what he offers the world and that is uh I hope and pray that we can include this essence of who we are in our prayer for the unity of the body of Christ And lastly, the number three is Jesus desire for us to experience God's glory. And I made it uh last but not the least because I think this is a um significant statement in verse 22. Jesus says, "I have given them the glory that you gave me."
What did Jesus say? Father, in his prayer, father, I have given the believers the glory.
So, we have the glory that Jesus gave us. And what is that glory? The glory that you gave me, Father. You gave me glory and I gave it to them so that they may be one as we are one.
Amen.
Jesus uh prayer is an expression of his desire for us to experience the glory of God in our lives. Whatever that is the glory of God, it means that I will enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit. For example, the dwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is in me for me to live and enjoy. Amen. To not neglect.
And I would be grateful to the Lord daily for the rest of my life because the Holy Spirit empowers me gives me direction gives me the way the possibility of of wonderful relationship with my brothers and sisters. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit. It gives me humility to serve one another and it makes us one. Amen. The glory of the of uh Jesus is majestic. It's transformative. It's love. The presence of the Lord in our lives.
Make us understand what true love means. Make us understand that love is not selfish kind of love. Amen. It's the giving of my life to others kind of love. Amen.
It can even be sacrificial kind of love that I can be willing to set aside my interest in order to put first the interest of of my brothers and sisters and in extension the interest of others. Amen.
The glory of God that is based on truth. The glory of God that is based on his holiness. So I as I ponder all these things wpping it all up together you know Jesus in his prayer expresses his desire that we may uh be united you know we may have unity um unity as as uh centered on the Lord Jesus Christ unity that will be a testimony to the world as we live our lives we pray in our prayer for unity. We pray also that they may see in us so that they may also uh receive the love of God and then they become part of the the united body of Christ. Amen.
And finally to enjoy the glory of God that is in us because Jesus has promised and he has given it to each one of us. Amen. So what a wonderful beginning of the year to think about the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ for you and me. Truly Jesus deeply loved you. Deeply love you and me. Amen.
Because he was thinking of you 2,000 years ago in that garden when he prayed. He was not only thinking of the the first disciples. He was thinking of the disciples that will come after them and then he was thinking of us in our present generation.
The Lord knows what is in store for 2026. Amen. The Lord knows the difficulties that we may face.
In the Sunday word I put there some questions and that I said it may seem gloomy no what are what could be what awaits us for 2026 and most of it are negative things you know but Jesus gave us hope. Amen. because he has prayed already for you and me and therefore he has equipped us for whatever challenges we may face for this year and he gave us that example of prayer so that we may also pray for unity for one another amen hallelujah father god we thank you lord god for your word thank you lord for preparing us for what lies ahead thank you lord god that we we do not need to to worry about anything of the uncertainties of life of the challenges Lord that may await us in the weeks or months ahead because we rely on your power the power that you have already prayed for 2000 years ago that has its effect even to us who are present generation of believers.
Thank you Lord God for empowering us. Thank you Lord God for the encouragement that we can serve one another in unity and serve one another in love. Oh Lord, may we bear this in mind as we are uh starting the year and uh the way is ahead of us. May your name be glorified in each of our lives. In Jesus mighty name we pray. Amen. Hallelujah.
Link to the service video.
Take-aways
Food for thought:
What does it mean for you to be united with other believers in the body of Christ?
How can you demonstrate the love of Christ to those around you?
What are some challenges that you face in your relationships with others, and how can you overcome them through the power of love and unity?
How can you prioritize unity and love in your life and in your relationships with others?
What does it mean for you to experience the glory of God in your life, and how can you live in a way that reflects this glory to others?