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Well, grace be unto you and peace
from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us
take this opportunity to silence our electronics out of love for
our brothers and sisters and to find our seats and to prepare
our hearts for worship. Let's do it. Well, we welcome all of you in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to Dayspring Fellowship. Just
delighted to have you with us for our corporate time of worship
as God's people gathered together for His glory this morning. And
I want to encourage visitors to sign our guest register and
also take one of these booklets, Ultimate Questions, that we love
to pass out to all who join us as visitors for worship. Also
out on the hall table is this yellow flyer that gives you instructions
all about the upcoming retreat next month. And so if you haven't
already grabbed one of these, you'll want to grab one if you're
coming to the retreat this year. We look forward to that. I want
to direct your attention inside the bulletin. You'll see there
that we are continuing in the Sunday school hour through 1st
Samuel. We're just going chapter by chapter
and we'll go all the way into 2nd Samuel. As well, we've got
a rotation of five men teaching. This morning, we were in Samuel
16, David anointed as king. And that should have been recorded.
If you were not here with us, you should be able to get that
and listen to it online on Sermon Audio or through our website.
And then down the page there, you'll see that there are no
Wednesday night activities. Our sermon passage for next week
will be John chapter 18, verses 1 through 11, as we wrap up chapter
17. Jesus' high priestly prayer this
morning, so I encourage you in your family worship time, your
private devotion time, to be meditating on John 18 1 through
11 this week in preparation for next week's Last Sunday evening's
conference on church and politics went really well. We had members
from churches all over Austin who gathered there at Park Hills
Baptist and enjoyed a really good conference on church and
politics. I understand that it was recorded,
but they are going to take some time, I think, to put together
a good edited package of that conference before they put it
online for us So eventually, I'll have a link for those who
want to go back and re-listen to it, or those who are unable
to attend, it should be available to you. I'll have that as soon
as I get it. And then the monthly free online resource that I'm
recommending for the month of September are these selected
sermons by George Whitefield. I've been very much impacted
by Whitefield, not only his preaching, but also the letters that he
wrote have been compiled and published. Here, though, is a
collection of some of his most magnificent sermons. He was preaching at the same
time Edwards was in the First Great Awakening. Many came to
faith under Whitefield's preaching. He was an itinerant preacher.
He would just preach in the fields. Men as renowned as Benjamin Franklin
would come out and listen to Whitefield preach. But some remarkable
sermons here in this collection that I encourage you to go and
just read a few this month. We're also in need of nursery
volunteers, and I understand that until we have a couple of
new volunteers to serve together on the second Sunday of each
month, that we'll be unable to provide our nursery ministry
on those second Sundays, and so if the Lord's calling you
to step up for that loving service towards your fellow Dayspringers.
See Susie and she will add you to the rotation. We're also putting
together a Dayspring cookbook and compiling that for the church. And so not just ladies, but men
as well. If you have recipes that you
think ought to be included, send those to Susie Phillips. You
can email those to her to be included and published in the
Dayspring cookbook. And then I want to bring your
attention to the fact that we are coming up on Dayspring's
46th anniversary. The Lord has been so faithful
and good to this little church over all of these decades, so
we're going to give him the glory and celebrate our 46th anniversary
on Sunday, September the 29th. have a fellowship meal after
the service, and we hope that you can all join us. We're asking
couples and families to bring two of these, a salad, a vegetable,
or a dessert, and then singles should bring one of these, bread,
drinks, or ice. Dayspring will be providing the
barbecue, and it will be delicious because a certain elder will
be tending the meat all night long before that celebration. We look forward to that time
of celebrating God's goodness to this little church over 46
years. Then I want to remind you there's
a parenting seminar coming up titled Reaching Your Child's
Heart Parenting Seminar. It's going to be led by the Sanchez's
and the Hayward's at Kenny Avenue Baptist Church. This will take
place on a Saturday, October the 19th, and all the information
you need is in the link that I give you there in the bulletin.
And then, as I mentioned, our day spring retreat is coming
up the last weekend of October. The inn is full. We have taken
all of the rooms available, and the deadline to pay for those
rooms is October the 13th, so keep that in mind, you can just
drop a check in the offering plate in the back and say that
it's for the retreat, or you can pay online on our website
and just let Cliff know that that's what it's for. There also
remains some service opportunities to serve at the retreat, and
you can sign up for those in the link at the bottom of your
bulletin. Well, as we begin this morning,
please turn with me in your red hymnal to hymn number 629. 629 in the red. You can hold your
finger there at what a friend we have in Jesus. And please
stand together for our call to worship. Our call to worship this morning,
it comes from the 150th Psalm. Praise the Lord. Praise God in
His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His mighty deeds.
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet
sound. Praise Him with lute and harp.
Praise Him with tambourine and dance. Praise Him with strings
and pipe. Praise Him with sounding cymbals. Praise Him with loud clashing
cymbals. Let everything that has breath
praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let us sing
together. Jesus, all our sins and griefs
to bear, what a privilege to carry everything to God in because we do not carry everything
to God in prayer. Every trial's a temptation. Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Jesus knows our every weakness,
take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy burdened, Let us pray together. Our God and our Father, we do
thank you that we can come to you in prayer through our Lord,
Jesus Christ, our God and our friend, Jesus. We thank you,
Heavenly Father, for manifesting your great love to us and sending
your son to die for us while we were yet sinners. We thank
you, Lord God, that in his name we can draw near to you today. In his name we can worship you,
reflect upon your kindness, your providence, your grace, your
faithfulness to all of your promises. Lord, we pray that as we come
to worship you this day, that it would be in spirit and in
truth. that your Holy Spirit would be
active among us in our midst to give us joy in you, and that
you would give us, Lord Christ, a reverence for you as our King. We pray that we might have a
deep love for you as our Savior. We pray that you would work all
of these things in us by the power of your Holy Spirit, that
you would be with us as we praise you, that you would supply all
that we lack, all that we need, as we admonish one another through
the singing of these hymns and psalms and spiritual songs, as
we meet with you in prayer, as we partake of the Lord's Supper,
as we hear your word read and proclaimed, that you would be
pleased and that you would receive all the glory. For Jesus' sake
and in his name we pray, amen. You may be seated for the reading
of God's word. Good morning. Scripture reading today is from
Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter 3, verses 8 through 12. To me, the very least of all
saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the
unfathomable riches of Christ. and to bring to light what is
the administration of the mystery for which ages has been hidden
in God who created all things. So that the manifold wisdom of
God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and
the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance
with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus
our Lord. in whom we have boldness and
confident access through faith in him. We celebrate that salvation every
Lord's Day here at Day Spring when we come together and particularly
as we celebrate the Lord's Supper. together, every Lord's Day here.
We emphasize the unity of God's people and coming together and
sharing of the one bread because we are one body. We make no distinctions
among God's people as we invite you to partake. of the Lord's
Supper. It is a great miracle and testimony
to the power of the gospel that we are a diverse little group
of people, young people, old people. We have pro-life Democrats,
and we have Republicans, and we have Independents, and we
have non-Americans, those Dayspringers whose earthly allegiance isn't
to America at all, but to some other nation. We have pre-millennialists,
post-millennialists, amillennialists. We have those who are anti-vaxxers
and those who are very pro-vaccine. We have all kinds of people here. And we make no distinctions. You can be a pedobaptist or a
credobaptist. All that we ask is that you are
one who has been adopted into God's family by faith alone and
Christ alone. So the first and most important
thing that we ask is that you are one who has been saved by
God's grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, for
his glory alone. Secondly, we do ask that you
be a baptized believer, but we leave the details of your baptism
up to your own individual conscience. And finally, we ask that you
not be under church discipline from your local church where
your membership resides so that we might respect the Lord as
he sovereignly builds his church here in this world. As we prepare
ourselves to partake of the Lord's Supper, I want to direct you
in your red hymnal once again to hymn number 598, number 598,
guide me, oh, thou great Jehovah. Let us sing
together. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak for the almighty. Hold me with thy powerful hand. Crystal fountain, whence the
healing stream doth flow. Let the fire and cloudy pillar
lead me on my journey through. Strong deliverer, strong deliverer,
still my strikes unsheathed. Be thou still my strength and
shield, When I dread the verge of Jordan, Bid my anxious fears
subside. Death of death and hell's destruction,
Let me sing for Canaan's side, Songs of praises sung, Many of you can remember the
lives that you lived as unbelievers before you were ever saved. The Apostle Paul, writing to
the local church in Ephesus, reminds the believers there of
their pagan lives that they had lived before they got saved.
Their spiritual deadness, he points out their disobedience,
the carrying out of the passions of their flesh, and then he says,
In Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought
near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace,
who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh
the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments
expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one
new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile
us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the
hostility. And he came and preached peace
to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through
him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father. Now, Paul
doesn't mean that Jesus came and physically broke down that
dividing wall in the temple courtyard that divided Gentiles from Jews. No, he says that he broke down
the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law, by abolishing
the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. He abolished the
law, that's the language Paul uses. And he abolished the law,
Jesus did this, in two ways. First, by perfectly keeping it
in our place. Secondly, by bearing upon himself
the condemnation of the law, that the law demands for our
sins. So Paul is saying that by his life and death, Jesus
has killed the hostility between us and God, and between us and
our fellow creatures. He fulfilled and thus abolished
the law, satisfying God's just wrath toward us and making us
one new redeemed people of all nations. We have been made one
in Christ Jesus. Paul concludes this section by
writing, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens. that you
are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household
of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, and who the whole
structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the
Lord. In him you also are being built
together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. So now
that there is a new man, one new man, a new people of God,
we have become fellow citizens of Israel and members of God's
family. Instead of God's presence dwelling
in the temple, he now indwells his church, the new living temple
built upon and held together by Jesus Christ, founded on the
apostles and prophets, and indwelt by God's Holy Spirit. Therefore,
let us come to this supper this morning as God's united, believing
people, giving thanks to the one who lived and died and was
raised for us so that our hostility before God and one another has
been forever put away. So I speak as to sensible people.
Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless
isn't not a participation in the blood of Christ. bread that
we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because
there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all
partake of the one bread. Whoever therefore eats the bread
or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be
guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person
examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of
the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning
the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many
of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves
truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the
Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along
with the world. Brothers and sisters, let's take
a moment of silence before the Lord to examine ourselves. Heavenly Father, we must confess
that we did come into this world estranged from you and separated
from your people. And we would never have come
to truly know you had you not mercifully sent your son Jesus
to live for us and to die for us, to reconcile us to you by
abolishing the law of commandments through his fulfillment of that
law. And so we thank you for the cross
by which the dividing wall has been torn down. for your son
Jesus, who gave his body, who gave his blood, that we might
be brought near and made royal subjects of his kingdom, members
of your family. So we ask you to bless this bread
and this cup, that you would set them apart for their holy
use. Bless us in partaking of them
to do so by faith alone, in Christ alone, to his glory alone, and
so in a worthy manner. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. For I received from the Lord
what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night
when he was betrayed, 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. In the same way also, he took
the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant
in my blood. Do this as often as you drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until
he comes. This is the body of our Lord,
crushed for our iniquities. This cup is the new covenant
in Christ's blood, shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of
sins. It's the new covenant in Christ's
blood. And based on Psalm 23, the Lord's
my shepherd, I'll not want. Let us sing together. The Lord's
my shepherd, I'll not want. He leads me down to lie In pastures
green He leadeth me The quiet water's fine He leadeth me, he
leadeth me The quiet water's fine My soul he doth restore
again Then me to walk doth make ♪ Within the paths of righteousness
♪ ♪ Ye for His own name's sake ♪ ♪ Within the paths of righteousness
♪ ♪ Ye for His own name's sake ♪ ♪ They though I walk in darkness
♪ ♪ When will I feel no ill ♪ ♪ For Thou art with me at the right
♪ ♪ Stop me of comfort ♪ me and thy rod, and staff, and
compass, still. My table, thou hast furnished
in the presence of my foes. My cup, thou hast cleaned the
one night, and my cup overflows. My head doth thrusteth from the
whip, and my cup overflows. Goodness and mercy, O my Lord,
shall surely follow me. And in God's house forevermore
my dwelling place shall be. And in God's house forevermore
my dwelling place shall be. Psalm 100, it will be on page
821 in the back of your red hymnal. 821, we're gonna read this psalm
responsibly together, so please stand together. Shout for joy to the Lord all
the earth. Know that the Lord is God. It
is He who made us and we are His. We are His people, the sheep
of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise
His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through
all generations. Let us pray together. Our merciful God and great Heavenly
Father, we come before you today recognizing that you are our
God, that we are the sheep of your pasture, and to you we owe
everything. You have substituted your one
and only Son in our place, and you have purchased your people,
your church, with His blood. We thank you, Lord God, that
you do not demand any other sacrifice from us for our salvation than
the one which you alone have provided in Jesus, your lamb,
to satisfy your wrath so that you alone receive all the glory
and honor for our salvation. And so we pray, Lord God, that
you would help us to live for your glory, for your honor, for
your praise. We pray, Lord God, that you would
be with your church today. We lift up to you this congregation.
We thank you for calling us together this morning, for sustaining
us, for giving us spiritual gifts, for giving us extraordinary opportunities
to share in the privilege of working to spread the glorious
gospel of Jesus. We pray, Lord God, for all who
are in need today, that you would provide healing to the sick and
comfort to the afflicted, we remember to you our sister, Sarah
Garcia, we pray that you would heal her body and strengthen
her. We pray for Ali and George as
they get married this week, that you would bless their wedding,
but most of all, Lord, that you would bless their marriage, that
it would be a covenant that reflects Christ's love for his church
and the salvation that is provided in the gospel. We pray, Lord
God, For all who are in need today, we pray for your church
throughout the world. We ask that you would continue
to bless it, to add to it daily, as many as are being saved. We
pray for Pastor Matthew Breeden in Round Rock this morning at
Faith Baptist Church, that you would fill him with your Holy
Spirit as he exalts Jesus among our brothers and sisters there.
Build that church up for their good, for your glory. We thank
you for all the faithful churches in Austin and throughout the
world who proclaim your gospel without compromise. We lift up
to you President Biden and all of our earthly leaders and pray
that they would be honored and that you would lead them in wisdom.
We pray that all Israel might be saved. And we pray especially
that as you have promised, that the whole earth might be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover
the sea. In Jesus' name and for His glory
we pray, amen. You may be seated and our children
may go out to Children's Church at this time. And as they go out, please turn
with me and your copy of God's inspired, inerrant word back
to the Gospel of John and to chapter 17, John chapter 17. We've been making our way through
Jesus's prayer. We noted last week that what
he prays for his 11 disciples, it applies also to us. But now
today, he explicitly prays not just for those present, but for
everybody, for us. So let's read it, John chapter
17, beginning in verse 20. I do not ask for these only,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 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. The glory that you have given
me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are
one, 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. 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. O righteous Father, even though
the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that
you have sent me. 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. Well, let me just
give you up front the main idea of the passage. Here it is. Our
unity with Jesus and our unity with each other in Jesus should
encourage us as we press on toward home. Our unity with Jesus and
our unity with each other in Jesus should encourage us as
we press on toward home. That's where we're going this
morning. Two points to the sermon. First of all, point number one,
So our big point, Jesus prays that his people would be one. He prays that his people would
be one. And then shorter, point number
two, Jesus prays that his people would be strengthened by hope.
Those two things. Jesus prays that his people would
be one. That's pretty much verses 20
through 23. And then 24 through 26 is the
second point. So point number one, Jesus prays
that his people would be one. Point number two, Jesus prays
that his people would be strengthened by hope. So point number one,
Jesus prays that his people would be one. Before we dive into verse 20,
let's remind ourselves just of the earlier parts of Jesus's
prayer, because we want to have in mind an understanding of the
flow of the entire thing, of what Jesus is aiming at through
this entire high priestly prayer. So in the first place, in those
first five verses there, Jesus prays that His Father would glorify
Him. And if you remember from two
weeks back, there was a twist. in that word glorify. Because
when Jesus talks about himself being glorified, strangely and
yet gloriously, the main thing he's talking about is that he'd
be lifted up on the cross. So he's talking about his death. He's tying glorification to his
death on the cross. So that the highest moment, the
highest moment of His glory, of His glorification, is, in
fact, His death. And then, of course, He prays
at the end of that section, and after that's done, then glorify
me with the splendor that I had with you before the foundation
of the world. So that's in there, too. And
then in the second section, verses 6 through 19, He prays for His
followers, those who believe in Him, those who are His disciples,
and He asks the Father to do several different things for
them, protect them, sustain them, and then sanctify them, which
is making them devoted to God for the mission that he is giving
to them of taking the glorious saving gospel out to the ends
of the earth, out to the world. So he asked the Father to do
all of those things. Well, now in this third section,
the prayer, it widens. So he says in verse 20, I don't
ask for these only. I don't ask these things for
these people who are sitting here at this table with me only.
I am praying these things, he says, also for those who will
believe in me through their word. So Jesus' prayer here, the first
thing to notice is that it's for all believers in him, including
you and me today. And so he makes it explicit here.
And he says, I'm praying for everybody who will believe in
me through their message. It's just remarkable that when
Jesus says that he doesn't say, I'm praying for all of those
who may believe through their word. He doesn't say, I'm praying
for all of those who might believe. It's incredibly powerful, I think,
that Jesus assumes the success of the mission, as though he
knew that people would actually be saved through his death and
resurrection, that that atonement that he made was definite. It was not just hypothetical. He wasn't simply hoping that
it would happen. He knew for certain that it would
happen, and even that it would include you, which is just an
incredible thought, that as Jesus just sort of prays into the future
and thinks down through all the centuries and all the millennia,
that one of the people that he was talking about as being given
to him by the Father in this prayer is you. What an amazing
thought that is. He wasn't just hoping that you
would be saved. He knew that you would be saved
because that was the Father's purpose all along in giving you
to Him before the foundation of the world. Anyway, let's look
at what Jesus prays for his people. First of all, he prays that his
people would be one. You can see it really clearly
in verse 21. I pray, he says, that they may
all be one. Just as you, Father, are in me
and I in you, I pray that they also may be in us so that the
world may believe that you have sent me. And that's in several
other places through the prayer, too, that His people, whom the
Father has given Him and whom He is about to redeem, Jesus
prays that they may be made one, that they would be unified. Now,
before we think about what that means, I want to give you just
a sense of the structure of this first section of the passage.
I think it's helpful. So verses 20 to 23, those four
verses. First, you've got verses 20 and
21. And then you've got 22 and 23. And Jesus is asking his father
the exact same thing in those two parts. He asked the father
to do something in verses 20 and 21. And then he asked the
father to do exactly the same thing again in verses 22 and
23. And the best way to kind of break
that down is to see that he asks something about the who, the
what, and the why of unity, the who, the what, and the why of
unity. So this helps us to understand
better exactly what Jesus is praying. So we're going to talk
about the who, the what, and the why. Those are going to be
our subpoints of point number one. So first, the who. Who is it that is to be unified? When Jesus says, I want them
all to be one, who is he talking about? Who is it that is to be
one? Well, like I said, that question is answered in both
halves of this section. It's answered at the beginning
of verse 20, and then it's answered again at the beginning of verse
22. So look first at verse 20. He
says, I don't ask for these only, but also for those who will believe
in me through their word. Now look down at verse 22. The
glory that you have given me, in other words, the revelation
of who you are as God, I have given to them, to those who have
believed, So if you look at 20 and you look at 22, those who
are to be unified together are those who have believed in and
accepted and received Jesus Christ, who is the perfect revelation
of God. That's who they are. It's not
just people in general. It's not just people who want
to be kind to one another or who want to visualize world peace
together with one another. It is those who receive and accept
and believe and trust in and rely upon the fact that Jesus
is the Son of God, the Lamb of God, who has come to take away
the sins of the world. And it's that certain knowledge
that Jesus really was sent from God, as he puts it in another
place, it's that certain faith in him which is the basis and
the foundation and the grounds of this unity that Jesus prays
for here. Same thing in verse 22. He says,
those would be unified are those to whom he has given the glory
which his father gave him. He shines the character and nature
of God upon us. He's revealed God's glory to
us. And we, as Christians, we have
accepted that. We've seen the glory of God in
Christ and we've accepted it, we've received it, we've believed
in it, we've trusted in it and relied on it and are relying
upon it and reveling in it. That's the kind of unity that
Jesus is talking about here. The root and ground of our love
for each other, the root and ground of our unity with one
another, is the fact that each and every one of us is a believer
in Jesus Christ. And that changes everything. Which brings us then to the what.
So we've talked about the who. Who is it that's to be unified?
Well, it's believers in Jesus. Secondly, the what. What is the
nature then of this unity? What is this unity? What does
it look like? Well, this is the point at which
this passage in John 17 really starts to blow people's minds
a little bit. It's got all this language of
I and them, you and me, they and us. It can get a little bit
confusing to kind of see exactly what's going on here. But the
point is that the unity, the unity that you and I, that we
are supposed to have as Christians is, and this is the mind-blowing
thing, It's the same kind of unity. It's a reflection of the
unity that the Son enjoys with His Father within the Trinity. It's an incredible thing because
that's not the kind of unity that people out there have. It's
not the kind of unity that we enjoy just with other human beings. There's a special kind of unity
among brothers and sisters in Christ, believers in the Lord
Jesus that reflects the unity that the Son and the Father and
the Spirit enjoy in the divine Trinity. So let me show you that. Look first of all at verse 21.
He says, I want them to be one, but then look at how he describes
that oneness. I want them to be one, Father,
just as you are in me and I in you. So whatever unity exists
between Father and Son in the Trinity, that's the kind of unity
Jesus wants us to share. It's a reflection of it. Do you
see that? Look at verse 22, he says it again. The glory that
you've given me, I've given them. And why has he done that? Why
has he revealed God's character? So that they may be one, even
as we are one. In other words, in the same way,
Father, that you and I are one, so let them be one with each
other. Okay, so what does it mean then
that Jesus has this unity with the Father? What's the nature
of that? Well, throughout the whole book
of John, you've seen this even over the course of the last few
weeks. Jesus just revels in his unity with his Father. It's everywhere
throughout the book. So in chapter five, remember,
he says, whatever the father does, the son also does, and
only what the father does, the son does. In another place in
the book, he says, believe me when I say that I am in the father
and the father is in me. That's John chapter 14. Also
in John chapter 14, he tells his disciples, if you really
knew me, you would know my father as well. And then he says, from
now on, because you know me, because you do know me, you do
know him, and you have seen him. Anyone who has seen me has seen
the Father. And then this most astonishing
statement of all, he says, I and the Father, I and the Father
are one. So Jesus, he shares a unity with
his Father in the Trinity that is deeply, deeply profound. So what can we say? What can
we say about this oneness shared by the Father and Son, given
everything that Jesus kind of piles up in terms of those phrases? What does it mean? What does
it consist of? Well, throughout the centuries, Christians have,
from the very beginning, forever affirmed that Scripture teaches
that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in a lot of different
things. purpose, action, essence, glory,
excellence, power. But here's the real kicker of
a truth that Jesus is bringing us into here in John 17. The
unity that exists among the persons of the Trinity, the unity that
exists among the three persons in one God, one God in three
persons, the unity that exists there, Jesus says, is the same
kind of unity that we as believers are to have with one another. And that is utterly and completely
distinct from the world. Now, before we talk about it,
we should just recognize that obviously we are finite creatures,
right? We are confined to time. We are
confined to space. to place in a way that God himself
is not. And so our unity with each other
will always and only be reflective and derivative from that in the
Trinity. We are not God and never will
be God. But even so, I mean, look at
what Jesus is saying in chapter 17. It's just astonishing that
Jesus would say that he wants us to be united together just
as he and his Father are united. I mean, it's true, we'll never
be like God. That's a mystery of the Trinity, that we will
never, ever be able to fit into our finite minds. And yet here
in John 17, Jesus looks at the unity that exists in the Trinity
and says, that's what I want you to have right here in your
little church. It's an astonishing thing that
Jesus does. So let's just think about it
for a second. Think about the unity of purpose and action. The unity of purpose and action.
I think that's not too hard to understand. I mean, sometimes
it's incredibly hard to do, but it's not that hard to understand.
A church can be united in purpose. It can want the same thing. We
can all have our hearts and our minds sort of locked in on one
thing that we're after, that we're trying to accomplish and
to do. We can have our mission, our
singular mission. Hopefully that's the great commission
that Jesus gave to us. We can have oneness in purpose.
It's easy to understand, too, how we could have oneness of
action. We're all gonna do the same things. We're all gonna face the same
way like an army and march after something that's out there. It's
not hard to understand. As hard as it is a thing to do,
it's a pretty simple thing. But what about the unity of essence,
which really sets the Trinity apart from every other kind of
unity? Do we? Do we have a unity of essence
as believers in Jesus Christ? Well, no, we don't, which is
why I use words like derivative and reflective. We don't have
a unity of essence. So where Jesus can say, if you
have seen me, you have seen the Father, because they have this
unity of essence. I couldn't really say, if you
have seen me, you've seen Bill Phillips. That just doesn't work. And you couldn't say that about
any other person, because we as believers, we don't have a
unity of essence. I mean, Jesus can say, I and
the Father are one in every way. I can't even say that about my
Sandra. Sandra and I are united in marriage,
but we're not one in every way. We're not. We're two different
people united in purpose and action, but we're not one in
the same way that Jesus and the Father are one. So we don't have
that. But even though we don't have
a unity of essence as believers, I think what Jesus is getting
at is that underneath purpose and action, there's still something
else. There's a deeper unity than just
the same way a political party can be united in purpose and
action, or a nonprofit could be united in purpose and action. There's something underneath
that for those of us who are believers. And what is that? Well, it's a reflection of a
unity of essence. And it is. Here's the key phrase.
It's a unity of identity, a unity of identity. We as believers
in Christ, we have a unity of identity that no political party,
no sports team, no corporation, no one has in the rest of the
world except for us. And what does that mean? What
is that unity of identity? Well, right here, we are on the
white hot core of the glory of what Jesus has done in saving
a people for himself. Because what he has done is that
he has changed our identity so that we are not just ourselves
anymore. All of a sudden, we are united
to him. And we are therefore united to
all of those who are also united to him. You remember that language
that Jesus uses in John 15 about the branches being united to
the vine. Well, the glorious thing about
it is that when a branch is united to the vine, well, the life and
the sap of the vine flows into the branches. But at the same
time, as more and more branches are united to that vine, what
happens is that those branches become united to one another.
because the same resurrection life and glory flows into them
from the same vine. It's the same thing that Paul
uses when he talks about the unity of the body. It's a deeply
Christian understanding of what it means to be unified. A human body has many members,
toes, fingers, elbows, but joined together into one body. What affects one affects the
rest. It's one of the profoundest reasons
for why Paul uses that image of the body to describe a church,
because each and every one of us, if we are united to the vine,
if we're united to Jesus, we are also united to one another. We have a new identity. You are
not just you who showed up here at Dayspring and made a decision
to become a member of this local church. I am not just me who
showed up here and decided to become a member of Dayspring.
When we come together, united to the vine and then covenanted
with one another in a local church, we become united to one another
into a new identity. And what is that identity? Well,
whatever else we are, we are above everything Jesus' people. Whatever else you are, whatever
other identities you have, whatever other thoughts about yourself
that you have, you are above all those other responsibilities,
interests, obligations, roles, all of it, you are above all
Jesus' people. Think about me. I am all kinds
of things. I wear a lot of hats. I have
a whole lot of different identities. I am a husband. I am a father. I am a son. I am a teacher. I'm a friend. I'm a pastor of
this church. I'm a citizen of the United States
of America. I'm all kinds of things, and
all of those things are important to me. All of those things I
am, but above all of and underneath all of that, and more importantly
than all of that, I am, above all, a saved sinner, redeemed
and forgiven by Jesus Christ. That is my identity. And the
same thing is true for you. Your identity, above everything
else, is in Christ. And that's got enormous implications,
just absolutely enormous implications for how you live with your brothers
and sisters in Christ, the way you live out your faith together
as the local church. I mean, just think about it for
a second. Your brother or sister, all the way across the opposite
end of the room from you, has an identity that is the same,
the exact same as yours. as one who has been forgiven
and redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Is your understanding
of that deep enough to bury and sink all the little ways that
they might annoy you? Is it deep enough to give you
motivation to get to know them, to love them, to care for them,
to pray for them? I mean, even harder, is your
understanding of your shared identity in Christ Jesus deep
enough to swallow up genuine hurt that others have done to
you? How deep is your understanding
that you have a shared identity in Christ Jesus? One more question
that we should ask, why does Jesus want for us to be one? He wants us to be one, those
of us who are believers in Christ, that's the who. The what? The nature of it is that it's
supposed to reflect the unity of the Trinity, because we as
believers in Christ, we now share a single identity as those who
are united to Christ. Well, third, why? Why then does
Jesus want us and desire for us to be one? What's the purpose
of our unity? Well, two times Jesus says what
the purpose is. Verse 21, I want all this to
happen, he says, so that the world may believe that you have
sent me. so that the world may believe
that you, Father, have sent me." In verse 23, he says, I want
all this to happen so that the world may know that you sent
me and loved them even as you loved me. to the reason, the
purpose, the reason he wants for us to be unified is so that
the world will see it, so that the unity shared by this church
will be a brilliant witness to God's work in the world around
us. Paul talks about the same thing in Ephesians chapter 3,
in the passage Adam read for us earlier, he says, you know,
through the church, through the people of God unified as one
in Christ, through the church, he says, the manifold wisdom
of God is made known to the universe. See what he means there? What
he means is that the unity on display, right here at Dayspring,
among a whole bunch of people who, in a lot of different ways,
don't have a whole lot in common, right? That we will be an amazing
display of God's work in the gospel. the coming together of
Jews and Gentiles, of rich and poor, of young and old, married
and single, pro-life Democrats and Independents and Republicans
and non-Americans, blacks, whites, Asians, Europeans, Latinos, Africans,
North and South Americans, maybe even some Texans here. and the
coming together of all of these diverse people in the same place
at the same time saying, despite all of these other differences,
we are the people of Jesus Christ. We'll show the world what God
does in the gospel. If you're here today and you're
not a Christian, I hope that you will have eyes to see that
the love that we have here for one another in this place today
is not just born in the fact that we have a ton of stuff in
common. There are people in this room
right now from all different kinds of backgrounds, from all
different kinds of socioeconomic statuses from all different ethnicities,
different generations, different politics. We're supporting different
candidates in the upcoming election. We have different nationalities
here. Four different that I can think
of just off the top of my head. We are clearly not here together,
gathered together as a church, unified together as a church,
because we have so much in common. We are gathered and unified here
as a church because we are people of Jesus and he has forgiven
each and every one of us. The unity that exists in the
divine trinity is reflected right here because our identity is
in him. because we have been loved by
Jesus. I hope that that is compelling
to you. I hope you can see that whatever
various kinds of unity that you may see out in the world, and
those seem to be just crumbling everywhere, right? I hope you
can see that what we have here is not just a surface-level,
superficial unity. It is a unity that goes all the
way deep down into the heart of the Trinity of God himself.
Our unity is reflective of the unity that exists in the Godhead. So that's the first point. Jesus
prays for his people to be one, just as he and his Father are
one. Here's the second point, simpler and much shorter. Jesus
prays for his people to be strengthened by hope. Jesus prays for his
people to be strengthened by hope. From this unity that we're
to have as those who are united to Jesus, his prayer reaches
kind of all the way out into eternity. Look there at verse
24. He says, Father, I desire that
they also whom you have given me, I desire that they may be
with me where I am to see my glory that you've given me because
you've loved me before the foundation of the world. I want them, Jesus
says, to be with me. I think that that has got to
be one of the sweetest statements in the entire Bible, for the
King of kings and Lord of lords, the creator of the entire universe,
to say to the Father, those people whom you have given me, for whom
I have died, I want them to be with me in the end. It goes back
to John chapter six, doesn't it? I'm not gonna lose, Father,
I'm not gonna lose any of these that you have given me, but I
will absolutely raise them up at the last day. Do you ever
think of Jesus in that way? As just absolutely determined
to have you with him in the end. It's an incredible thing to think
about, isn't it? To think of Jesus up there on the throne
of the universe longing to be with you and with me. Father,
I want them to be with me where I am. I want them to see my glory. I mean, you know, you know what
it's like to long to be with someone. And that longing is
exactly what Jesus says he has for you and me right now, even
as he's seated on the throne. I want them to be with me. Do
you remember what Jesus said after instituting the Lord's
Supper? He said to his disciples, truly,
truly, I say to you, I tell you the truth. I will not drink of
the fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in my kingdom."
It speaks to this very kind of longing. You know what wine symbolizes
across the world, the world over? Celebration, joy, just celebration. Jesus is saying, I am not going
to celebrate again, not when I'm enthroned, not when I'm seated
at the right hand of my Father. I will not celebrate again until
I celebrate with you in my Father's kingdom. It's an incredible thought,
isn't it? That Jesus, he's holding back
the heavenly jubilation for our arrival. Even more beautiful
is that he knows exactly who's coming, those whom you have given
me, Father. Jesus wants you to be with Him.
He wants you to be in His presence. He wants you in His presence
now through His Spirit, but He's longing for the day when you
are in His presence once and for all, face-to-face, physically. Look also at what being with
Jesus is gonna mean, verse 24. He says, I want them to see my
glory, the glory that you have given me because you loved me
before the creation of the world. That's an incredible statement
because the whole story of the Bible has been about the fact
that human beings cannot see the glory of God, right? From
the flaming swords that flashed across the way to the tree of
life in Eden. To those archers who were supposed
to shoot anybody who crossed the boundary to go up on Mount
Sinai, where the glory of the Lord was. To the fact that the
glory of the Lord, when it filled the temple, it filled only the
most holy place and no one else got to see it once it was there.
To the fact that when Jesus died on the cross, the curtain that
separated the people from the presence and the glory of God
was ripped in half from top to bottom, so that the way to God's
glory was made open again. The whole story of the Bible
is the story of how human beings, they cannot see the glory of
God and live. How can they be brought into
his holy glorious presence. And Jesus says, let me tell you
how, through what I'm doing for you, I'm bringing you into my
presence. And Father, I want them once
they're there. I want them to see your glory
again. So it's just so beautiful when
the Bible says the statement, they will see his face. That's an amazing promise that
you have as a believer. That's the amazing promise that
Jesus holds out to you right now from the throne. Come to
me and I will show you my glory. We will be together. We'll celebrate
together and I will show you my glory. What an amazing promise
He's given to you. It's a reason, isn't it, to press
on. That's what the Lord Jesus holds
out in front of us, that there is a day coming that we are striving
for, but a day when we will be with Him and we will see Him
face to face. We will see His glory. I want
you to see just one more thing here. Look at the very end of
this passage, verse 26. Look at what He says. 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." Look at that second phrase. I've made known
to them your name, but then look at the second phrase. I will
continue to make it known. You see what's going on there?
Jesus is praying all of these things for you as a believer.
Father, I want them to be with you, with me. And there in that
little phrase, He commits himself to answering his own prayer. I will, from the throne, continue
to make your name known to them. What an incredibly encouraging
picture that is. And in the midst of hardship,
in the midst of trial, in the midst of situations that throw
you into the need to forgive other people, what an incredible
encouragement that is, that your king sits upon the throne, holding
up the celebration, right? Delaying the feast, not drinking
of the fruit of the vine until you get there, until you come
into the throne room, and yet he's committing himself at the
same time to make it all so, committing all the resources
of his power to bring you safely home. Revel in that, take comfort
in that, and live this week in its truth. Let us pray. Our dear Lord Jesus, we thank
you and we praise you that right now you sit upon the throne of
the universe and you have committed to answering your own prayer
that we would be with you and see your glory. Continue to make
your Father's name known to us. Continue to make the gospel known
to us, and let it encourage us in our faith. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would do the thing that you've already promised,
and that is answer that prayer. We pray that you would help us
to lean hard into our identity in Christ as your people. each
and every one of us, especially here at Dayspring, in this particular
local church. We pray that you would cause
us to be unified, not just superficially, not just paper thin at the top,
but all the way down, understanding who we are because of what you
have done for us. Our Lord Jesus, we pray all of
these things in your wonderful name and always to your honor
and glory. Amen. Please stand together. Be sure to greet and fellowship
with one another before you leave here today. And now may the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship
of his Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
John 17:20-26 - Our Union with Jesus
Series John
Sermon Begins at 37:20
| Sermon ID | 91524174333257 |
| Duration | 1:16:52 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | John 17:20-26 |
| Language | English |
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