God isn't really
something to worship. I guess there's a God
out there somewhere. I hope there is a God. God isn't really
something to worship. God is everywhere. I'm glad you're here today. 2020 is almost over,
isn't that good news? I can't wait to have 2020
in my rearview mirror. I'm just done with 2020. Of course, you never know what
2021's going to bring, right? But God's been with us in 2020. He'll be with us in 2021. Not to worry. Would you please turn in your
Bibles to John, chapter 17. We're doing a series
called, "2020." And we're looking at the main
major teachings, doctrines of the scriptures. The person of God, the nature
and characteristics of God, the attributes of God, the
person, nature, and work of Jesus, his salvation. We've looked at the Holy Spirit. We've even considered angels
one week, demons another week. And we're looking at the
church the last few weeks. Last time we were together,
we started in John 17, and we looked at what Jesus
himself prayed to the Father and what every true
church should be. Before we get started, you
should know that in John 17, you have a monumental chapter. Because what you are
reading is the work of Jesus in interceding for us. The Bible says, he ever lives
to make intercession for us. And you get a snippet
of that, for this is the longest recorded
prayer of Jesus to his father in the scripture. Here he is praying for
his followers, those who were following him
then and those who would be following him in the future. So it's an incredible chapter. Before we get started this
morning, let's pray together. Father, thank you for the
truths of every song we just sang, that you have been
faithful, you have been good. And we really can't wait
to see what you have for us in days, weeks, months ahead. And so Father, we
want to just dedicate the new year to you coming up. As tough as this last year
has been for nearly everyone on this planet,
Father, we just pray for your grace in the future. For your mercy in the future. And help us, Lord,
to view everything through the correct lens. The world view,
the lens of truth, as given to us in Your word. We ask in Jesus's name. Amen. Experimental prototype,
community of tomorrow. Experimental prototype,
community of tomorrow. EPCOT. That was Walt Disney's dream. You have heard of Epcot Center. Many of us have
visited Epcot Center. We know it today is
an overpriced theme park in Orlando, Florida. But what you may not know is it
was not intended by Walt Disney to be a theme park
in Orlando, Florida. It was designed by
Walt Disney to be an actual city of 20,000
people living together using the latest technology. That's what his vision was. Walt Disney died
before his vision, his dream could
become a reality. And no one in the
Disney corporation had a vision big enough
like Walt Disney had for that future city. They didn't get it. They didn't ever latch onto it. So it never became what
Disney intended it to become. Rather than a living, breathing
city that Disney wanted, it has become as you
know a theme park. It has become a place that
people go to be entertained. It is a place that people visit. Jesus also had a vision,
a dream you might say, of a new community. He called it his church. Matthew 16-- "I will build
my church," ecclesia. A group of people called out of
the world who do life together. Jesus also died before
his dream was realized. But he predicted it, he
anticipated this new community. He prayed for it in John 17. And then he rose
again from the dead to ensure it would become what
he intended it to become-- the new community
called The Church. We must be committed to not
letting the church become another Epcot-- an entertainment place, a place
where people visit occasionally but don't do life together. We have to be committed to that. Which brings us to the
central issue and that is, what is the purpose
of the church? What function are we to fulfill? What was Jesus's vision? What was his intention? And what are the characteristics
that Jesus anticipated for his church to be? Well, we began looking
at that question and answering that question
last time we were together, in John chapter 17. And I gave you two of the
four characteristics of what every true church should be. We noted when we were together
that every true church should demonstrate the glory of God. And that every true church
should communicate God's truth. And we looked at that. We discussed that. We delved into that. That number one, when we
gather, God is on center stage. It's all about him. He gets top billing
and our lives get reoriented to true north. That's the glory of God. So we meet together and
the purpose of our meeting is not to meet felt needs,
not to just be built up and encourage, though
those things should happen, but primarily, to
live for his glory. And the best way we
can live for his glory effectively is by
that second thing we looked at-- to
communicate God's truth, to preach the word. And so the church, you might
say, is a textual community. Yes, we live our lives together. We have community, but a very
specific kind of community, it's a textual community. That is, we take our
cues from the scripture, from the text of the scripture. So then to sum up where
we've been last time, you might say that the church,
His church, the true church, is both theo-centric-- God centered-- and
biblio-centric-- Bible centered. It's centered on God and His
glory and to ensure that it is, it is biblio-centric, centered
on the scripture, which tells us how that can happen. Now according to Jesus, there
are two more characteristics that he, the founder, is
praying for and anticipating his church, his
community to become. And both of these qualities that
we're going to look at today focus on our relationship
to the world, those who are inside the church, and
how we should relate to those who are outside the church. So let me begin with the
third characteristic, and that is, every true
church should penetrate, penetrate God's world. Let's begin in John
17, the 14th verse. Jesus, praying to
his Father said, "I have given them your word;
and the world has hated them because they are
not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should
take them out of the world, but that You should keep
them from the evil one. They are not of the world,
just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into
the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify
Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth." So it's pretty obvious
that Jesus anticipated that his followers would
go out into the world and spread the message. That's what verse 18 is
all about, you sent me, I'm sending them. Later on, he is
going to send them. He's going to give them
a command, a very, very blatant command. When before he ascends into
heaven after his resurrection, he'll tell them, go
into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature. Furthermore, if you look
down at verse 20, he says, "I do not pray for
these alone, but also for those who will believe
in Me through their word." So again, it's
pretty obvious Jesus anticipated that his
followers are going to go out and preach truth,
preach the word. And there will be some people
who will hear that message and will believe in Jesus. Now go back to the 18th verse. That is the hinge verse of this,
"as You sent me into the world, I also have sent
them into the world." It's a very important
word, the word "sent." I'm going to say it
to you in the Greek and you're going to tell me
what word comes from that-- "apostello," apostle. Someone in the first
service thought, pistoli. I don't know where
he got that from. But I guess there's sort
of a similarity there. But apostello is apostle,
and an apostle simply means somebody sent out-- a sent
out individual, an ambassador, an envoy, somebody who is
sent out for a specific task by someone who is in authority. So Jesus's plan was
for his followers to penetrate the world
around them with the truth so that more might believe. So that becomes one of the
characteristics Jesus planned for, prayed for his church-- that we would
penetrate God's world. Someone once said that church
is the only society on Earth that exists for the
benefit of non-members. We must never allow the church
to become a "bless me" club. Here I am. You got an hour to bless
me, better be good. I want to be blessed. Listen, I want
you to be blessed. We should all be blessed. But a blessing from God and
the feeling we get at church is secondary to the primary
purpose of gathering. Yes, we should be blessed
as we gather together. But the purpose isn't
that we be pampered. The purpose is that
we glorify God, that we hear the preaching
of the word-- all of that equips us to go out and
do something with it. And just so his disciples
were clear, Jesus told them, it's always time to evangelize. It's always time. There's not like, well,
now isn't the time to get the message out. That'll come later. It's always harvest time. There are always people
who need to hear. There are always people
ready to respond. Jesus in John chapter
4 said to them, "do you not say there
are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I tell you, lift up
your eyes and look at the fields for they are already
white for harvest." That's an important
word for believers because churches have
a tendency over time-- all of them have this
tendency, it's human nature-- that over time, churches
turn inward toward themselves rather than outward
toward the world. They may begin with an outward
focus, an evangelistic focus. We want to change
our community and we want to change our nation. But over time, most
churches, most organizations start to turn inward. So that even though Jesus
said, go into all the world. It seems that the
message of the church is, come, come to church,
come and hear the message. And that's important. We want people to come to church
and come and hear the message. But the coming to church and
coming to hear the message is simply a preparation
so that we might go out and make a difference. There was once an old church
in England I read about, that was a beautiful
building and it had a great purpose
statement, a sign on the front of the church. And the sign said, "we
preach Christ crucified." It's a great section out
of the New Testament, "we preach Christ crucified." That was the sign in
the front of the church. Over time, ivy that was growing
around the church building started growing up on
the sign, and over time, as the years went by, the
last word in the statement was obscured. So you'd look up and it
said, "we preach Christ." That's good, it's still good. But as you can
imagine, over time the ivy kept growing until
pretty soon, it just said, "we preach." And nobody cut it down, so
you know what's coming next. Over the years,
the only word you could see over that
church was, "we." And eventually, the church died. Any church that turns inward
and makes it all about we, us, me, mine, will die. John Stott, who pastored
a church in England, said, "if all churches
had been faithful, the world would long ago
have been evangelized." So how do we? How can we? How do we do it effectively? How do we penetrate
the world effectively? I'll give you three
words and then I'll show it to you in
the text, three words. We need to know. We need to grow. And we need to go. There are certain things
we need to be knowing. And then there's a certain
way we need to be growing, but eventually we're going
to have to get going. So what do we have to know? Well, we have to
know our position. What is our position? Verse 14, "I've
given them Your word; the world has hated
them because--" here it is, "they
are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." Now back in verse 11, in
praying for the church, he says, "they are in the world." Here, he says, "they
are not of the world." Again in verse 16, "they
are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." So that's our position. We're in the world, but
we're not of the world. You've heard that before. We're in it, but not of it. We live in the world. We're surrounded by people
who have their belief system, but we are not of them. We have another home. We are just passing through. This world is not our home. So we're in it, but
we're not of it. Now look at the word, "world." I brought this up to you before,
I just want to underscore it. In the New Testament, the
world "world," "cosmos," doesn't primarily refer to
the physical world, the earth, the biosphere et cetera. It refers to a world system. A system of ideas, values,
philosophies, morals, activities, and people run by,
controlled by the devil, Satan. 2 Corinthians chapter
4, Paul writes, "Satan, the God of
this evil world, has blinded the minds of
those who do not believe." So we're in the world,
we're not of that world. Earth then for us
is simply a stopping off point on our way home-- heaven. And until then, we have a
task to perform in this world. But we're not of it. What we have to be
careful about is not becoming too immersed in
the world that we live in. We're in it, but not of it. So if we get too
immersed in our world, it is as ridiculous as making
a flight across the country, and you stop in an airport
to make a connecting flight, you're only going to be in
that airport for an hour. So you're flying from
here to your destination. You stop off in an airport. You're there for an hour, you're
making a connecting flight. You go into the
bathroom and you say, this bathroom needs a remodel. I'm going to remodel
this bathroom. Your relative or
friend who is with you go, you're going to remodel
the bathroom in the airport? You're only going
to be here an hour. I know, but this is important. OK, but it's not that
important, because that is not your destination. So to get too
immersed in the world is as ridiculous as remodeling
a bathroom in the airport where you're making a
connecting flight. Romans chapter 12
verse 2, Paul says, "do not be conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind." You see the position
of the Christian is sort of like an
astronaut in space. Space is not the natural
habitat for the astronaut. If he's up there, he's going
to need special protection because that is not his
natural environment. Or a scuba diver in the ocean. The ocean is not
the natural element. So unless we realize our
position, in the world, but not of the world, we're
going to get swallowed up by the world. You know why? Verse 14 tells you
why, "I've given them Your word; and the
world," is what? What does this say? "Hated them." Mark that. It's not like the world just
tolerates you, they hate you. The system of values
and philosophies that make the world system
run by Satan and his minions is against you. The world has hated
them, hated them. Because they are
not of the world. Now, this happens to be
an occupational hazard. Get used to it, get used to it. When you follow Jesus Christ
and you make that your aim, your ambition, the
occupational hazard of that is the world's hatred. So we need to know our
position-- that's number one. Number two, after
knowing is growing. We need to grow in preparation. Verse 15, he
continues, "I do not pray that You take
them out of the world, but that You should keep them." The word, "keep"
means preserve them. Don't let them go, preserve
them "from the evil one. They are not of the world,
just as I am not of the world." Now he tells you how he keeps
you, how he preserves you. "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth." That's how you survive. That's your spacesuit. That's your scuba gear. The word of God, the truths,
the principles of scripture that you immerse yourself in
allow you to be in the world, but not of the world. Allow you to walk through
this crazy place called Earth without being tainted by it. You know, Paul even
pictured the Christian life. In Ephesians 5, you'll
recall this as I tell you, he wrote about the Christian
experience here as a battle. He wanted you to know that
this isn't a playground, this is a battleground. And so Paul writes, "put
on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to
stand against the wilds of the devil." Think of the spaceman, the
astronaut in the spacesuit. Put on the armor
of God, that you might be able to stand against
the wilds of the devil. Then he lists all
the pieces of armor. But he finally says, "and the
sword of the spirit," which is the word of God. So Jesus says, sanctify
them by your truth. Your word is truth. That's the Bible. The Bible-- read it to be
wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. Or as Peter put it, as
newborn babes desire the sincere or pure
milk of the word that you might grow thereby. So you need to know
and you need to grow. We need to be
knowing our position. We need to be growing
in preparation. But at some point,
we have to be going. Because if all we
do is know and grow, you know what happens to
people who just accumulate a lot of knowledge and keep
growing and growing and feeding and feeding on truth? They get fat, spiritually obese. It's like, I got all
this great knowledge. OK, so go work it out. Work it off. You got to go out. And so after
knowing our position and growing in
preparation, we have to be going for penetration. And that takes us back to
verse 18, the word, "sent." "You sent Me into the
world, I have also sent them into the world." That is the goal of knowing. That is the goal of growing. I made a list of five things. I've discovered there are
five different responses that Christians
have historically had to the world around them. There may be more, but
just to make it easy, there are five basic
responses that Christians in any era, at any
time, in any age have toward the world
system around them. Response number one-- and
it's not the best response-- is to isolate. They isolate themselves. They become isolationists. Their whole goal is
to escape the world. I'll go live in a monastery. I want to get away from all the
bad things that are happening. The world is evil. It has fallen. There have even been
attempts in American history to create Christian communities,
Christian villages, towns, cities that are only
occupied by Christians. Because, gosh, wouldn't
it be great just to have all your neighbors
as born again Christians? OK, you're describing
heaven now, but I get it. Or people say, wouldn't
it be great to work around Christians all day long? The only people you
work with are believers. Take it from somebody who works
with Christians all day long, it ain't what you think it is. We're still fallen human beings,
sinners saved by grace, just like anybody else
in any place else. So response number one-- and
it's not the right response-- is to isolate. Here's another response,
historically, Christians have had toward the world. Not to isolate, but to insulate. They become insular. It's all about
protecting themselves. I'm in this bad place
called the world, so I need to protect myself
and to protect my children and protect my family. So I'm going to
be way over here. And I'm going to notice
the bad things in the world and I'm going to point at them
and say, that's a bad person. That's a bad thing. Look how bad that is. Some people, all they do is
spew negative bad comments about all the bad
things around them. You know who was
really good at that? The Pharisees. Pharisees didn't
evangelize, they just pointed out all the bad people. Even Jesus, they
thought, was bad because he ate with tax
collectors and sinners. He mingled with them. And they pointed
out, that's bad. So you can isolate
and you can insulate. Those are not the
best responses. A third response,
historically, the church has had toward the
world is to vegetate. I think this is even
worse because this is a person who is apathetic. He's just vegging out, man. He has no passion for the
lost, no concern for the lost. He looks around
and notices people are dying and going to hell. So? At least I'm not. And their goal is to
make it through life with as much personal
comfort as possible, and who cares about
everybody else? That's vegetate. All three are not
what Jesus intended. We are not to isolate,
we are not to insulate, we are not to vegetate. Let me give you a
fourth response-- and this is not a
good response either-- to imitate the world. Be just like them,
act just like them. And some believers,
some Christians actually think this is a good strategy. Yeah, man, I want
to show the world that I'm as cool as they are. I do what they do,
I can be like them. Well, you're not going
to attract unbelievers to the same thing they are. The only thing that's
attractive is that you are different from they are. You've raised the bar. So these responses,
as you can see, are not the best responses. We are not to imitate,
we're not to isolate, we are not to insulate,
we're not to vegetate. Here's the best response-- to penetrate. To penetrate the
darkness with light, to go out into the world,
to rescue souls out of it. That's penetration. We want to go for penetration. Because Jesus said, you're
the light of the world, you are the-- what's the next
part-- you are the salt of-- you can, it's church, you can
talk back to me at least-- you are the salt of the Earth. Last time I checked, salt
doesn't do a whole lot of good in the salt shaker. Just sits in the salt shaker. The only time salt
as good as when you empty the salt out
of the salt shaker. Then it's on your food, and
you go, mmm that tastes good. Salt it up a little bit,
spice it up a little bit. I'm so grateful for the salt
being here in the salt shaker. But at some point, we need
to get out to rescue souls. I'm going to throw
something up on the screen and let's read this together. I love this paragraph. "Live churches are
constantly changing. Dead churches don't have to. Live churches have
lots of noisy kids. Dead churches are fairly quiet. Live church's expenses
always exceed their income. Dead churches take in more than
they ever dreamed of spending. Live churches are constantly
improving for the future. Dead churches
worship their past. Live churches focus on people. Dead churches focus on programs. Live churches dream
great dreams of God. Dead churches relive nightmares. Live churches don't have
'can't' in their dictionary. Dead churches have nothing but. Live churches evangelize. Dead churches fossilize." Now, think of that last
part, because that's true for churches, that's
true for individuals. You have one of two options. If you don't evangelize,
you will fossilize. You'll start turning inward. It's all about me and my
blessing and my group, and that's the tendency. Evangelize or you
will fossilize. So we need to be
knowing our position, growing in preparation,
going for penetration. Listen, I love people
coming to church. I love the church full. But the goal is not
to fill churches. The goal is to fill heaven. To fill heaven. So that is one of the
marks of the church. That's what Jesus prayed for. That's what he wants. We are to be those who are
demonstrating God's glory, communicating God's truth,
and penetrating God's world. I'll give you a fourth
and a final mark, trait, characteristic
that Jesus wants and praised for his church. We are to be a church
that emulates God's love. We are to emulate God's love. Now, we come to the final part
of this prayer in verse 20. And it's the most exciting
part of the prayer because you're in it. You are. He is praying for you. Verse 20, "I do not
pray for these alone," these 11 apostles, I'm
saying 11 because of Judas, "but also for those
who will believe in Me through their word." Well, that's us. We believe the testimony passed
down from the apostolic era, last 2000 years to us. What does he pray for? "That they all may be one,
as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that
they may be one in Us, that the world may
believe that You sent me. And the glory what You
gave Me I have given them, that they may be one
just as We are one-- I in them, and You and Me; that
they may be perfect in one, that the world may know
that You have sent Me, and have loved them
as You have loved Me. 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. O righteous Father! The world has not known
You, but I have known You ; and these have known
that You sent Me. And I have declared
to them Your name, and will declare it, that the
love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." Now that's a mouthful. So I want to distill it down. Jesus prays for,
and four times he prays for, four
times he mentions that he prays for
oneness, prays for unity, that they may be
one as we are one. Which is to me very interesting,
that of all the things Jesus, in looking to the
future of the church, what he prays for, he does
not pray for our safety. He does not pray for our health. He does not pray
for our successes. He does not pray
for our happiness. He prays for unity. That's noteworthy. That's high on his list, that
they may be one as we are one. Now, let me explain
unity because I want you to know what it does not mean. Unity is not unanimity. He is not somehow praying for
some ecclesiastical ecumenism, where we're just going to
forget denominations, and all get together in one
group, and then hold arms, and sing Kumbaya, and
just all get along. That ain't going to happen. If you're thinking
that's going to happen, that's an unrealistic
expectation. Because as I read
my New Testament, even the best and closest
followers of Christ didn't see eye to eye, in fact,
didn't get along sometimes. There was an argument
among the apostles as to who would be the
greatest in the kingdom. And at one point,
two of the apostles were asking Jesus to sit in the
kingdom, one on the right hand, one on the left hand, which
brought the whole mess up again and they argued again. And then Peter and Paul argued
about the law in relationship to the Galatian Christians. There's a couple of
chapters in Galatians, all about that argument,
one in particular. The Jerusalem council
enacts chapter 15 had a falling out,
had a quarrel, as to the requirements
of salvation. And then there's
that classic argument between Paul and Barnabas. They had a falling out. And it says that the
contention between them was so sharp that they split
company into two completely separate evangelistic groups. That's in the Bible. That's just the early church. So when he says, I'm praying
that they may be one, he's not praying for
unanimity and he's not praying for uniformity. Unity is not uniformity. Or we're all going
to think the same. We're all going
to vote the same. We all have to read out of
the same version of the Bible. We're not going to
agree on everything. Somebody once told
me, a mentor told me, if you find two people
that agree on everything, one of them isn't thinking. So we're not going to agree
on every topic, every subject, every theological subject. We're not going to
agree on church policy. We're not going to agree
on every song that we sing. There are some of you
go, I hate that song. Or somebody saying, I wish
we'd sing that song more. That's just what it is. That's style. And we should understand
that because we're all from a family, right? You grew up in a family
of brothers and sisters. Presumably, if you
had a large family, you know what diversity
and unity are all about. You're one family, but you're
very different from one another in that family. You have, one kid
is rambunctious, one who's very, very quiet
and off to himself or herself. You may have one person
who's a morning person, one who's a night person. Very different personalities,
but still one family. There is unity in diversity. Welcome to the church. All the kids are different. You got some fuzzy
fundamentalists. You got some crazy charismatics. You got some reformed. You got some deformed. You got some pre-trib,
mid-trib, post-trib. You got amillennialist,
pre-millennialist, post-millennialist. And you're thinking, I have
idea what you just said. Hang on a couple of weeks,
we'll be explaining all that. Some prefer stained
glass, windows, anaerobes, and candles, and the
organ, and hymns. And others prefer
guitars and granola. But we're still God's people. It's unrealistic to think we're
going to agree on everything. And let me say how
thankful I am that there are different churches in this
community and other communities to accommodate all the different
people with different styles. That can be a good thing. So when he says that they
may be one as we are one, what is he praying for? Listen carefully. Jesus is praying for
unity based on truth. Unity based on truth. Unity based on what? Truth. Wants you to get that,
unity based on truth. And in particular, unity
based upon the truth of who Jesus Christ is and
what he has come to do. That's the unity. And it's not like
he's saying, boy, I hope that they have unity. He is knowing that
they will have unity. It's not something
we hope we get. We already have. We already have. And I want you to see that. Go back to verse 8. Jesus said, "I have given to
them the words which You have given Me; and they
have received them, and have known surely that
I came forth from You; and they have believed
that You sent Me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but
for those You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours,
and Yours are Mine, and I'm glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep
through Your name those whom You have given Me,
that they may be one as We are." You get that? Our unity is based on the
belief that Jesus came here to do the Father's will. That's what he said. So here's what it means-- I'm a Christian the same
way you're a Christian. I believe in the finished
work of Jesus Christ, sent from heaven to die on
a cross for my sins. You're saved by the same belief. My Savior, if you've received
Christ as your Savior. That's the unity. So if you believe
that Jesus Christ has been sent from the
Father and has come to pay for your sin, we're family. If you don't believe Jesus
Christ is sent from the Father to pay for your sins,
we ain't family. You might be a neighbor. You might be a nice guy or
gal, but you're not family. Because there are certain things
that we would call essentials of the Christian faith. Other things we would
call non-essentials. When it comes to essentials,
we divide over that. We make a division. You have a kooky idea about
Jesus, a kooky idea that's not biblical about how you
get saved, we're not family. But if you believe
that, that Jesus is who he said he is, what the
Bible says he's come to do, the Father's will, die on
the cross for your sins, you can believe
anything you want, pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib. You can have any belief you want
about styles of worship, modes of baptism, et cetera, because
all of that is non-essential, it's secondary. And we're still family. So as Augustine put it,
"in essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty,
but in all things charity." Now Jesus, as I mentioned, prays
for unity based on truth four times in this last
section, four times, over, and over, and
over, and over again, he prays that they may
be one as we are one. So it's pretty important
for him to repeat it to the Father four times. Why? Why is it so important? Verse 21, here it is,
"that they may be one, as You, Father, are
in Me, and I in You; that they may also
be one in Us," that's the unity,
here it is, "that." Or better yet, so
"that the world may believe that You sent Me." You see, unity
helps create belief. Our unity makes outsiders want
to be part of the community. They're looking for a real
place that gives authentic love and is together
over the essentials. They're looking for
something like that. And when they see it in us,
that's attractive to them because they can't get it at
the Elks club or any other club. They see it in the church. So unity among Christians
proves the reality of the Christian message. You want to hear that
and even write that down. Unity among Christians
proves the reality of the Christian message. That's why, that the world
may believe You sent me. You see we live
before watchful eyes. And they, the world, is noticing
with great scrupulousness our unity or our disunity. Imagine how ridiculous
it seems to an unbeliever when they look at
churches and see them fighting over the wearing
of robes, the colors of pews, the styles of music, the length
of hair, the modes of baptism. It's absurd because we're
out there supposedly trying to rescue them from their
plight and bring them into God's family. And they're saying, I
don't need rescuing. I don't need to go
into your family because your family
is like a soap opera. Right? So division in the church,
bickering in the church, will turn people off. It will send people away. I want you to see what
Paul Billheimer wrote. He said, "the continuous
and widespread fragmentation of the Church has been
the scandal of the ages. It has been Satan's
master strategy. The sin of disunity probably
has caused more souls to be lost than all
other sins combined." Powerful statement. Think of your New Testament. There was there was arguments
within congregations back then. Paul wrote to Romans
and Corinthians. And there were people
arguing over eating meat, not eating meat, right? To idols. So Paul never said, listen,
you got an argument going on. Go down the church street
and start another church, just for meat eaters only. And then the other
group go down the street and start another church
for non-meat eaters only. No, he just said, work it out. Those are non-essentials. Let there be unity
over the essentials. So then our challenge
is to become the people that God intended us to
become, the church that Jesus prayed for. One that would
demonstrate his glory. One that would
communicate God's truth. One that would
penetrate God's world. And one that would
emulate God's love. If we don't, if that isn't what
we're fixed on doing and being, then we're going to turn
out to be another Epcot-- an entertainment place. A place that people go
to visit occasionally, instead of what he intended-- a place where people
do life together. Father, we want to thank
you for the unity we have because of what Jesus has done. We believe what he has done. We believe it is enough,
it, is sufficient it saves. How thankful we are that our
Lord Jesus prayed this prayer. And that John wrote it
down and we can years later read what our head
expected, anticipated, and rose from the dead to
ensure would be his church. I pray that we individually,
as well as collectively, would be those who live
for your glory, communicate the word of
God, the truth of God, the scriptures of God. That we would penetrate
the world around us, rescuing souls from it. And emulating, showing your
love to one another here and in the community,
other congregations who may do things a little
bit differently, yet believe the essentials
of the gospel. May we welcome them
and embrace them. And fellowship. In Spirit and truth, we ask
it in Jesus's name, Amen. We hope you enjoyed this special
service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how
this message impacted you. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
