“Threat #3: DIVISION (John 17:20-26)” | 1/24/2021
John 17:20-26 | 1/24/21 | Will DuVal
But this morning we return to our sermon series at hand - “Church Under Fire: the 7 Greatest Threats to the Church Today”. Jesus showed us how to avoid the threat of IGNORANCE in John ch.17, the apostle Paul warned us of the threat of COMPROMISE in 2 Timothy ch.4, and now we’re RETURNING to John 17, and picking up where Jesus left off, in his warning against a THIRD threat: DIVISION.
Once again, I feel like the timing of this message couldn’t be better! Because what’s the OPPOSITE of division? If you want to AVOID division, then you’ll strive for...?
“My fellow Americans, this is a day of history and hope of renewal… To overcome the challenges [of the pandemic, systemic racism, political divisiveness], to restore the soul of America… requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: Unity. Unity... My whole soul is in this: Bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation. And I ask every American to join me in this cause.”
Thus began President Biden’s Inaugural address on Wednesday: with an impassioned plea for unity. Then he got in a limo, drove over to the White House, and signed more executive orders, progressive orders, than any president ever in his first half week. He disinvited ALL evangelical Christians from the National Prayer Service, even his own Catholic bishops were deemed too conservative. Cabinet-wise, we’ll now have a staunch, public defendant of Planned Parenthood as our Secretary of Health, and the first transgender person as assistant secretary of health - these folks are now our exemplars of “health” in America.
Well, if that’s President Biden’s idea of unity, I guess he can count ME out. I will continue to PRAY for him, because Scripture commands me to, but don’t plan on me uniting to join THAT cause any time soon.
Is UNITY even possible, in our politicized, polarized world today? Perhaps we need to back up as believers, and ask an even more basic question: is unity even DESIRABLE? Jesus himself declared: “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.” (Matt 10:34-36) That doesn’t sound like unity to me!
In the OT, God’s prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, warned against FALSE prophets who would “mislead my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace” (Ezek 13:10; Jer 6:14).
Because as the apostle Paul asks rhetorically in the NEW Testament: “What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14) Some things - righteousness and sin, light and darkness, Christian support and calls to repeal the Hyde Amendment - they cannot peacefully coexist.
And yet, the Bible ALSO affirms, “how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Ps 133:1) And that’s the rub: unity CAN be a good and pleasant, WONDERFUL thing; but unity in and of itself is a value-neutral term. ISIS is unified. The KKK is pretty unified. The question is: what are you unified BY?
When BROTHERS, the family of God, Christ’s adopted siblings, united by HIS blood, when WE dwell in unity, it’s a beautiful thing. That’s why all 2 DOZEN NT calls for UNITY refer only, specifically in the context of THE CHURCH:
1 Cor 1:10 “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [that’s who Paul’s writing to here; the family of GOD, unified under HIS name…] that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind”
Ephesians 4:3-6 “Maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body [of Christ; His church] and one Spirit —just as you were called to the one hope… — one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” Christian unity.
Philippians 1:27 “Stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel”
-
Brothers, and sisters: If you’re looking for unity, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re holding your breath waiting for AMERICA to be unified, I’m afraid I’ve got bad news for you. But you and I CAN experience unity - REAL, genuine, personal, life-giving, God-glorifying, God-INFUSED UNITY this morning; IF we are unified by the GOSPEL. We’ve got to be unified around Jesus’ CROSS, and His empty TOMB. That is the GLUE that holds us together in unity as a church, as God’s people, and praise God, it is stronger than ANY other adhesive out there!
“ WE preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles - YES; the gospel IS divisive, Jesus has and does and will continue to divide mother from father, sister from brother; those who will repent and trust Him from those who will NOT - but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:23) - not ONLY the power of God for SALVATION; Jesus saves us INTO a new family as well; Christ is the power of God for Christian UNITY, both “Jews and Greeks”, Paul says. Today he might say “Both Democrats AND Republicans”. Jews and Gentiles were about as divided ethnically 2,000 years ago as we are politically today. But Paul makes the RADICAL claim that the gospel has the power to unify us all, SPIRITUALLY, under the banner of Christ. The force holding us together - Jesus’ own blood - is more powerful than ALL the other forces seeking to divide us - politics, identity politics, race, class, gender, those who cheer FOR and AGAINST the Chiefs now that the Rams left town - the gospel trumps it ALL!
So here’s your outline: as I said, we’re BACK in John ch.17, beginning in v20, as Jesus turns his focus from the threat of IGNORANCE to the danger of DIVISION. And he’s gonna ARM us here with five weapons for countering it, and seeking Christian UNITY. And with THREE of the 5 (I thought 3 was enough…), I’m going to try and apply Jesus’ exhortations here in our modern context, by taking up probably the 3 most divisive issues within the Church, in the past year.
But here’s how I want to do it, because we’ve waded into some pretty turbulent waters these past 2 Sundays. I told you on the front end of this series: many churches are WAAAY too conflict-avoidant for a sermon series like this. But 2 weeks into it now, I have to confess that I owe some of you an apology. NOT for stepping on your toes; I stand behind everything I’ve preached, AND behind my decision to PREACH it, as we studied last week in 2 Timothy 4.
No, I need to apologize because if I’m really honest, I half-expected some of y’all to leave after those sermons. I was afraid I might not see some of you who are pro-choice back after last week’s Sanctity of Life Sunday. And on the other side of the aisle, when I criticized President Trump TWO weeks ago for promulgating lies that precipitated the riot on the Capitol, I expected some of y’all to chant “Not my pastor”, and peace out.
So as your pastor, I apologize. For selling some of you short, on your appreciation for and your commitment to the UNITY of the church. That we really CAN disagree, even passionately so, at times, and still dwell in good and pleasant UNITY as brothers and sisters in Christ.
It’s sad that I would expect that. What a low bar we’ve set for ourselves, that I would feel the need to applaud you for staying at West Hills, when you hear things in a sermon you disagree with. But in a society where the default response to almost any disagreement is to simply LEAVE. Or better yet: CANCEL your opposition! Restrict and ban them. Censor and shut them down. In our “cancel-culture” world, the unity of the church shines out like a beautiful light in the darkness.
So this morning’s message is gonna be really affirming. The past 2 weeks have been high-challenge. This is gonna be high-encouragement. Because I have been so encouraged by you all, as your pastor, this past year. So rather than critique, I want to CELEBRATE. Rather than poke you, I want to praise you. And more than anything, I want us to praise Christ, for the unity that HE is working in and through His church here, as we continue to look to Him, our glue, in the midst of a divided world.
Would you stand… John 17:20-26
Let’s remind ourselves of the context here: this is Jesus’ final prayer, his last WORDS, in fact, in the Upper Room, during the Last Supper, with his disciples, the night before he headed out to the Garden of Gethsemane and the next morning, to his trial and crucifixion. So these are WEIGHTY words. Jesus prayed in vv6-19 for his 12 disciples, specifically, but now in these last 7 verses, he’s gonna shift his focus and pray not just for THEM, but for EVERYONE who would come to him in faith. And here is his prayer:
“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.”
This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
Before we even dive in, please don’t miss the significance of this passage; Jesus could have prayed for any NUMBER of important things for us, his last night in that Upper Room. He could have prayed for our FAITH - that we would all be devoted. He could have prayed for our spiritual GROWTH - that we would all be discipled. He could have prayed for our MISSIONAL fervor - that we would all be disciple-makers. But his final prayer for us, his church, was for our UNITY - that we would all be ONE. So how DO we… Avoid the Threat of DIVISION?
#1 - We CRY OUT to God. (v20)
That’s the very context of the passage; it isn’t inconsequential, that this is a PRAYER. This is Jesus, praying; Christ, the Son, IMPLORING God, the Father: ““I do not ask for these only, but also for [ALL] those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one”.
Let me ask you, brother, sister: how often do you pray for the UNITY of West Hills? The unity of the Church, in America? Worldwide? We gotta have SOME challenge this morning; I don’t know about you, but MY answer to that question is pretty convicting. I pray for y’all OFTEN. I pray for your health. Your spiritual health; your growth in godliness. I pray for your marriages, your parenting. Your witness, your evangelism. But I’ll be honest; I RARELY pray for the unity of our church. And Principle #1 here is a real gut-check. Now, more than EVER, given the past year we’ve had, we need to be praying, regularly, desperately, for our unity.
The apostle James rebukes us: “You do not have, because you do not ask.” (4:2). But JESUS assures us: “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” (Jn 15:16) What a promise! It’s often difficult to know whether you’re asking something in Jesus’ name or not, according to His WILL or not. 1 John 5:14 promises, “if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” But it can be tough to know whether that promotion is his will or not. That new romantic interest. That physical healing you’re praying for. But you know what you can ALWAYS rest assured IS in accordance with Christ’s will, whenever you pray for it? UNITY, in the Church. If Jesus HIMSELF prayed for it, that is a SAFE prayer for you to pray!
But perhaps even more important here than our call to cry out to God in prayer, is our reminder that Christ our Mediator is doing so FOR us. Not only did Jesus ask the Father for our unity while he was here on EARTH, but He is in Heaven, right now, at the right hand of the Father, Hebrews 7:25, always interceding for us. That means Jesus is STILL up in Heaven, interceding, advocating with God the Father on behalf of His Church: that we may all be ONE. Praise God - that even when I, your sinful, forgetful, distracted pastor, neglect to pray for this church’s unity, we have an intercessor, a mediator, an ADVOCATE, who is looking out for this Church. It is HIS, after all! CHRIST is the head; we’re just the body. He calls the shots. And as much as you think that YOU hate conflict and division, Jesus cares even more about our unity than you or I do. Praise God!
Rule #2, for avoiding division - Remember our COMMON FAITH. (v20, 25-26)
Jesus prays in v20 “for those who will believe in me through their word [that is, through the disciples’ word, their testimony of faith, the common faith, passed down from the 12 (here in John 17), to the 120 (in Acts 1), then to the 3,000 (Acts ch2)... all the way down, 2,000 years later, to you and me! THAT same, shared faith. Jesus continues in vv25-26…] ...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...”
I said it already in the introduction: it’s all about what or WHO we’re UNIFIED around. Jesus isn’t praying for some nebulous, vague, undirected sense of unity; he prays pointedly, specifically, for our unity in HIM! For those who believe in ME, he prays. The world doesn’t KNOW God, v25; so unity is impossible with the world. And undesirable for Christians anyway - Jesus calls us to be HOLY; distinct from the world! No, we are to be unified, we can ONLY be unified, by our common faith in Christ Jesus.
This has been put to the test, not only at West Hills, but in the Church at large, in seemingly unprecedented ways this past year. Listen: the Church has ALWAYS found things to divide over. Historically, we’ve divided doctrinally, Denominationalism, over mode and method of baptism, over the authority and inspiration of Scripture, we’ve divided practically over issues like slavery and the role of women in ministry. We’ll even find ways in our petty disobedience to split churches over preferred style of worship music or the proverbial color of the new carpet in the sanctuary. But I know from so many pastor friends I’ve talked to, that in many of their churches, it has been more difficult than EVER to remain unified this year, facing so much CONFLICT due to COVID-19. That is application point #1, in your bulletins; I want to celebrate with you, our unity here at West Hills amidst COVID CONFLICT.
I started trying to make a list of ALL the ways the world is DIVIDED over this pandemic, but there’s not even time to list them all:
Obviously, Satan has done everything in his power to divide us politically, because even a VIRUS can be politicized these days. So the issue gets framed as those who defend SCIENCE and LIFE vs. those who defend LIBERTY and QUALITY of life (the economy, jobs, etc.).
Folks are divided scientifically, based on whose information you even TRUST. One month masks were bad, then they were good. One month the virus spread via contact, then it was airborne. The vaccine is dangerous; just kidding it’s safe.
We’ve divided practically in our responses and decision-making. Some of you decided: I’m not gonna let this thing dictate any more of my life than I HAVE to. You’re still getting together with friends, you’re going about life as normally as possible. Others haven’t left your houses or had a real, live interaction with another human in 10 months.
Most important in terms of our church unity, there’s been the perpetual threat to divide ecclesiologically, over what the proper response of the CHURCH should be to all this. Some of you may have honestly disagreed with some of the decisions that we’ve made along the way as a church, from BOTH directions. Some of you thought it was careless and irresponsible that we were among the first churches to reopen in June. Others couldn’t believe, STILL can’t believe, that we’re making you wear a mask. It’s almost laughable now, to think back to our concerns from LAST January, about maintaining unity in the midst of launching a second service. That’s NOTHING compared to trying to remain unified as both an in-person and a VIRTUAL church. Many churches haven’t even tried. They’ve taken this as an excuse, a “sign from God” that they’re being called to launch so-called “virtual campuses”. And they have no intention of ever re-unifying their church.
And YET, in the midst of ALL of it, West Hills has stayed unified. Even when we disagree, we’re unified. As leaders, your elders, we’re unified. Those of you at home who join us faithfully each week via livestream, and those of us here in person; we are UNIFIED. And this isn’t like Biden’s Inaugural Address; I’m not just repeating the word “unity” so much in the hopes that I’ll somehow WILL it into existence. No, you all have actually PROVEN yourselves faithful to the unity of this church. Sure, you may complain, but you still put your mask on and come to church anyway. Yeah, there may have been a learning curve with at home worship with small kids, but you’re making the virtual thing work for now. Regardless of your COVID politics and preferences, you’ve continued to give financially, to find ways to serve even remotely, and to pray faithfully for this church. And to love one another, even those you disagree with, in the process.
Brothers and sisters, that kind of unity is ONLY possible through our common faith in Christ Jesus. You simply won’t find it in the world. Between maskers and anti-maskers; vaccinators vs. anti-vaxxers. Forget it! ONLY in the church. Because the unifying force of the gospel is stronger than the divisive forces of this world.
#3 - We need to not just BELIEVE in Jesus, but to ABIDE in Him [Christ]. (v21-23, 26)
Jesus prayed, in vv21-23: “that they may all be one, [HOW SO? In what WAY?] just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us… 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… that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
What’s going on here? All this “you in me” and “I in you” and “them in us” and “I in them” dizzying talk? TWO things, two summary points:
First, Jesus is using the TRINITY here as an illustration of the kind of unity he has in mind for His church. HOW unified does He want us to be? As unified as the Father and the Son are. “That they may be one EVEN AS WE ARE one.” That’s pretty unified.
Second, I think Jesus is reiterating here point #2 above, but pushing it even further. He’s saying, “It’s not enough to simply BELIEVE in me; yes, that’s the starting point, of your common faith.” But I think he’s acknowledging that this world is gonna get SO polarized, that the ONLY way that the church can remain TRULY unified is by constantly abiding IN Christ. V21: “That they may be IN US”; v23: “and I in them”.
It brings to mind Jesus’ metaphor from John ch.15: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (v5) The very best way to ensure we stay unified as a church, is to stay connected to the Vine, who is Christ. Kent Hughes uses the illustration of an upside-down ice cream cone. If Jesus is the tip, the point, at the top, we may start our faith journey pretty far from him, and far apart from one ANOTHER, down at opposite ends of the rim, the opening of the cone. But as we abide in Christ and draw closer in intimacy to Him, we are necessarily getting closer to one another as well. I use the same advice in marriage counseling: the best way to ensure you stay UNIFIED as a couple, is to both pursue Jesus with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. As you draw closer to Him, you necessarily get closer to one another.
Here’s a second application point for us; the SECOND major, divisive issue that has plagued so many churches this past year, but that by the grace of God, we at West Hills can this morning celebrate our unity as a church amidst: RACIAL UNREST. As if the pandemic wasn’t enough, George Floyd’s death this summer and the re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement has absolutely ROCKED the church world. And frankly, SPLIT the church world.
On the one hand, you have “woke” churches decrying the evils of pervasive, systemic racism, and adopting Critical Race Theory as the solution to the problem: whites need to recognize and LAY DOWN our privilege, for the sake of empowering our black brothers and sisters. Relationships are all about POWER, and it’s a zero-sum game; in order for you to win, I have to lose. There are only the oppressed, and the oppressors, and you’re either one or the other. And don’t forget: Jesus OPPOSED the oppressors, and he laid down HIS privilege as God, for the sake of the marginalized and the disadvantaged. That’s all one camp.
Then on the OTHER end of the spectrum, you’ve got the churches who swing the pendulum, in reaction against what they perceive to be the unbiblical, divisive, identity politics of CRT. They may even swing so far as to claim that race doesn’t EXIST. It’s just a concept. And frankly, a rather unimportant one. We shouldn’t care whether someone is black, brown, white, yellow or purple; there’s only ONE race, after all, the “human race”. And if racism still exists at all, on the personal level - “I mean, none of US are racist, at MY church” - but hypothetically if there IS still racism out there, in individuals’ hearts, the only way to get PAST it is to stop TALKING about it so darn much! If we keep making such a big DEAL about race, of COURSE racism is gonna continue. We just need to be COLORBLIND.
And then - I wanna say somewhere in the middle, but truthfully we may just reject that spectrum altogether, this false dichotomy - but amidst all of that DIS-unity, there’s a church like West Hills. And we’ve got BOTH camps of Christians represented here. But probably more than anything else, most of us, I suspect fall in the “Neither” category. Because we recognize that whether it’s a concept or not, race DOES still matter in our country today; if you don’t think so, you can just ask any of our African-American brothers or sisters here. Their blackness MATTERS. Both to them, and to so many people who see and interact with them as black. And yet, I’ve never heard ANY of them demand an apology from me for my whiteness. Or buy into this dangerous narrative that POWER is the unavoidable, decisive currency in all our relationships, rather than LOVE. We are ALL called, REGARDLESS of our race, in love, like Christ Jesus, to “consider others more significant than ourselves.” (Phil 2:3) And we DO that here at West Hills. I am SO encouraged, as your pastor, to watch our church LOVE one another in true Christian unity, even when we disagree on second-tier issues like this. Because at the end of the day, we know that “in Christ Jesus [we] are all sons [and daughters] of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is [therefore] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave[g] nor free, there is no male and female, [no BLACK OR WHITE] for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:26-28)
#4 - We need to Consider our CALLING. (v21, 23)
Jesus explains in vv21 & 23 that at least ONE of the reasons He is praying for our unity is “so that the world may believe that you [God] have sent me…”
Brothers & Sisters: our unity IS our witness! John 13:35 “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” And conversely, if we DON’T, then they WON’T. If the church doesn’t look any different from the world, if we’re just as divided as THEY are, why would anyone give church, or Christianity, a second thought? But man, if we can remain unified despite disagreements, REAL, significant, but not ultimately, or eternally significant disagreements, then it forces the world to ask: “What IS the adhesive that bonds this group of otherwise diverse, differing people together? Clearly whatever UNIFIES them must be STRONGER than even race, or class, or politics…” Man - what a powerful witness in our divided world!
So your third application point should come as no surprise; I touched on it in the introduction, in numerous prior sermons, because it’s probably the most divisive of ALL the threats to our unity: POLITICAL DISAGREEMENT. So I’ll be brief here, so as not to beat a dead horse, and simply say: if you feel a greater sense of natural closeness with an atheist of similar political persuasions to you, than you do with a fellow believer across the political aisle from you, then I think Satan has won. I had that exact conversation with someone recently, where I had to ask “What’s more important to you, in deciding compatibility, with someone you’re considering dating: that he’s a Christian, or that he’s a Republican?” That’s the kind of challenging, convicting question that some of you may need to take a step back and ask yourself this morning.
But I’ll say it again: I am so PROUD, I really am, that West Hills is not a politically homogeneous church. I’m so encouraged that you Trump fans haven’t left the church these past 4 years. I expect the same of you Biden fans, as I rip on him the next 4 years. And I’m so encouraged that those of you who don’t think politics should have any place in the pulpit AT ALL, are still here. Listen: a church is a spiritual family. That’s the NT’s metaphor, right. Do any of y’all know any families - maybe it’s YOUR family! - that cannot tolerate ANY disagreement. Like, the MINUTE a dissenting viewpoint gets raised at the dinner table, Mom predictably cuts in “Who’s ready for DESSERT?!” and diverts the conversation. Because there’s kind of this unspoken understanding that this family is NOT strong enough to withstand a disagreement. That is so SAD, isn’t it? That’s not the kind of family we want to be at West Hills. And by God’s grace, it’s not the kind of family we ARE. I love that I can be honest with y’all, and that you can be honest with me, and we can still count on seeing each other back at the family table, the LORD’S table, the following Sunday.
Lastly, #5 - To avoid division, we must Anticipate our COMMON HOPE. (v24)
Jesus prays: “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.”
And brothers and sisters, if Jesus has asked for it, you better believe that really is our blessed hope - that one day, all who have been adopted into God’s heavenly family, by repenting of our sins and trusting in Jesus by faith, we will one day be with Him where He is, and SEE His glory, face to face - Amen!
But guess who else you’re gonna see there? A whole lot of these brothers and sisters, back, once again, around the family table! And listen: You don’t want things to be AWKWARD in Heaven, do you?! That’s why Jesus says: “if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matt 5:23-24) We apply the same principle to communion, which we’ll observe together in just a moment - that if you have something against a brother or sister, or they have something against you, Jesus exhorts us here to GO to them first, and be reconciled, THEN come and offer your gift, eat and drink the elements. Our unity is SO important to him, that he doesn’t even want us at the table until we’ve made up. That is a great, weekly accountability check on our unity as a church. If there are DIVISIONS in this church, I should know about it after Sunday, because there oughta be a LOT of leftover crackers and juice. :)
But brothers and sisters, when we collectively anticipate our common, future hope - the joys of HEAVEN have a way of putting the petty squabbles of this world in proper perspective. May we “all be one”, in Christ, as a counter-cultural witness, unto God’s glory, and until He brings us home to our common hope. Amen. Let’s pray.