We Believe In One... Church

This evening series is called 'The Church and the Creed'. We're using as a framework to think about the nature of the church the phrase that we say when we repeat the Nicene Creed: We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. Over the next four weeks we're going to take each of those words that describe the church and look at what they mean: one, holy, catholic and apostolic. Inevitably we can't begin to cover all the issues that are raised. Each week we are focussing on one key passage of scripture that relates to the topic.

Tonight our adjective is 'one' – so our subject is the one-ness, the unity, of the church. The verses that I want to concentrate on are John 17.20-23, so do turn to those. They're on p 1085 of the Bibles in the pews. And my outline is on the back of the service sheet.

When you hear talk of the unity of the church worldwide, what comes to your mind? Does it sound to you rather like somebody saying 'Newcastle United are the best football team in the world' - admirably loyal but unfortunately obviously not true? Well, what we have in this passage is the prayer of Jesus for the unity of the church. Richard Baxter the great puritan pastor of Kidderminster used to speak of preaching 'as a dying man to dying men'. I read recently a sermon that a young, unknown, American pastor preached to the congregation where he served. It was published in a magazine with a worldwide circulation. It was simple and direct. He reaffirmed his confidence in the gospel and his sure hope of eternal life through Christ. He urged his hearers to keep living in the light of their own knowledge of Christ, the hope of glory – to keep trusting God, witnessing to the gospel and loving one another.

What made his words especially moving, memorable and powerful was the fact that he had recently been diagnosed as having terminal cancer. This was the last time he would preach to them or anyone else, and he knew it: he was already too weak to keep working. He did, in fact, die soon afterwards. If you know you're going to die, you say the things that matter most to you, and your words carry great weight. This prayer comes from the last night of Jesus' earthly life. He knows that he is about to die. He has been sharing one last supper with his disciples – in particular the twelve apostles. Judas has split off from the group to go and betray Jesus to the religious authorities who want him dead. Jesus has been teaching the disciples – preaching his last sermon, if you like. The record of it is there in chapters 13 to 16. It is simply put. It is direct. Its life-transforming power continues 2000 years on.

Then Jesus ends this last earthly teaching with a prayer, which was intended to be overheard. So he is talking to his Father in heaven but he also wants his disciples to learn from his prayer. One of the themes of his prayer is the unity of his followers, and that's what we've got here in 17.20-23. What are we to learn?


First, THE PRECONDITION OF THE CHURCH'S UNITY IS BELIEF IN WHAT THE APOSTLES SAY ABOUT JESUS

This is verse 20:

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.

Up to this point Jesus has been praying for the group of disciples who were there with him. But now he looks beyond them. Indeed he looks beyond his death and resurrection. He sees a wider group of people who will believe in him. And how will their faith come about? It will be through the message of the first group of disciples.

Jesus' prayer for unity applies to those who believe in him by believing the teaching of those first disciples. How do we know what that teaching is? It is recorded here in the New Testament. The New Testament is precisely the written record of the teaching of the apostles. Not only had they seen and heard and known Jesus during his earthly life. They had a unique commission to teach the truth about the significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. What they taught was told them by God. So back in 16.12 Jesus made a promise to them in these terms:

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

In other words the Holy Spirit will speak to them. He will tell them all truth, the truth about the future, and the truth about Jesus. And those true words will be the necessary supplement to the truth that they have already heard direct from the lips of Jesus. And look at what Jesus says about those disciples earlier in his prayer for them. In 17.6:

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.

And then in verse 8:

For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.

Those disciples had a unique revelation of God from God through Jesus, and it was given to them in words. Not mystical experience or religious insight or even simply seeing what Jesus did and what happened to him and drawing their own conclusions. It was a verbal revelation. And that's just what we need, because the great thing about verbal communication is that it can be passed on intact. And that's exactly what they did with it.

Why spend time clarifying that when we're supposed to be thinking about Jesus' prayer for unity? Because we'll never understand what Jesus is on about, nor will we understand the nature of the church's unity, if we don't take this on board: Jesus' prayer applies to those who believe the apostolic teaching. That is to say, it applies to those who believe the New Testament. And believing the New Testament means believing the Old Testament as well, because the New Testament presupposes and teaches the God-given truth of the Old Testament.

The unity of the church is founded on biblical truth. So the last of the apostles, Paul, says in Ephesians that the church is

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

The other side of that coin is that what Jesus says here about unity does not and cannot apply to those who have not accepted the truth of the Bible and believed in Jesus through it. Whether we call ourselves Christians is not the point. Whether we call ourselves a Christian church is not the point. The question is this: Do we believe in Jesus by believing the Bible? If we do, then what Jesus says about unity applies to us. If we don't, it doesn't.

And that makes life difficult. It's not so hard to see how this works in relation to unbelievers. And it's relatively easy to see how this applies when whole so-called churches explicitly reject the truth of the Bible and correct it with additional writings, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons. Christians cannot and should not be united with such groups. We should love them. We should take opportunities to witness to the truth. But as churches we should be clearly separate. The hardest part comes when some who belong to the same group and who maybe even once accepted the Bible's truth start to deny it.

Not that we should be surprised when it happens. There is ample warning in the New Testament itself. Acts 20.30:

Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!

We need to be on our guard for when others do that. But we need to be on our guard lest we end up disbelieving and distorting the truth ourselves.

Cancerous cells should not be welcomed in the body. Teaching and teachers who reject the truth of the Bible are like a cancer in the Body of Christ. They should not be welcomed. The church's unity cannot include them, or its life will be put in danger.

We cannot avoid the conclusion, then, that some disunity amongst those who call themselves Christians is appropriate and even vital, when the visible church organisation includes those who reject the Bible's teaching. And that disunity will be made worse in the long run if there is a wrong tolerance of false teaching in the name of love and unity.

And that is the situation we find ourselves in in this Anglican denomination at the moment. So when the Bishop of Newcastle said things that contradicted the plain teaching of Scripture and undermined the entire Christian sexual ethic, we found ourselves having to say that we could not accept his spiritual oversight. And that remains the position.

Remember we're not talking about disagreements over secondary matters here. There is plenty of scope for that within a united church, whether it's a local congregation or an association of congregations such as a denomination or indeed the whole worldwide body of believers. We're talking about fundamental issues.

Let me give one notorious example. Here is some teaching that presents itself as Christian. I quote:

"Since God can no longer be conceived in theistic terms, it becomes nonsensical to seek to understand Jesus as the incarnation of the theistic deity. So the Christology of the ages is bankrupt… The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.

"Resurrection is an action of God. Jesus was raised into the meaning of God. It therefore cannot be a physical resuscitation occurring inside human history… There is no external, objective, revealed standard writ in Scripture or on tablets of stone that will govern our ethical behaviour for all time."

All of that was written by a diocesan bishop of the Episcopal Church of the USA – in other words an Anglican bishop. He flatly denies the fundamental truths of the Gospel.

Many say that the unity of the visible, institutional church is so important that such teaching should be tolerated even if we do disagree with it. Nothing was done to remove him. Indeed he has wide support. No wonder there is disunity within Anglicanism. If there weren't, with that kind of teaching present, it would be a sign that the cancer had done its work and the body was dead. Thank God it isn't. Remember that the precondition of the church's unity is belief in what the apostles say about Jesus. Learn what they say. Believe it and live by it. Be on your guard against distorting or denying it. And be ready to defend the true Bible-and-gospel-based unity of the church against such distortions and denials, from whatever source they may come.

That all took some time, I know. But its so important in the present climate of thinking in which the gospel is so often made subordinate to the demands of holding together the institution of the church. There can be no real unity without faith in the gospel. It is the gospel, which creates the profound unity that believers do experience. Which brings me to second point.


Secondly, THE PATTERN OF THE CHURCH'S UNITY IS THE UNION OF THE FATHER AND THE SON

The prayer of Jesus for believers is (verse 21)…

…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.

And verse 22 develops the thought:

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one…

Don't you think that's mind-blowing? The unity of believers should be like the unity that exists between God the Father and God the Son.

And the one-ness of the Trinity is more than only an illustration of what the unity amongst us and between us and other believers should be like. It is the unity within God that forms the unity of the church.

Have you ever seen a sheet metal press in operation? These are awesomely powerful machines that stamp out metal parts from thick metal sheets as if they were paper. The two patterns, one above and one beneath, match each other perfectly and move precisely together. The metal sheet is clamped with great force beneath their irresistible jaws and formed into the same shape as the patterns.

It's a very inadequate illustration. But I hope you get the point. The J.B.Philips translation of the New Testament has Paul saying in Romans 12.1 that we should not let the world 'squeeze us into its mould', but instead we should be transformed. It is God the Father working together with his Son who transform us so that our life together as believers takes on the same shape as theirs. So Jesus prays in the second half of verse 21:

May they also be in us…

Together we get caught up in the union of the Father and the Son. It is that experience that the apostles wanted to share. So at the start of his first letter, John says:

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

In what ways should the unity of believers be like the unity of the Father and the Son? Here are three ways. No doubt there are more. First, we should be united in purpose. Back in 6.38-40, Jesus says:

For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but the will of him who sent me… For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Secondly, we should be united in love. At the baptism of Jesus, God the Father said so that the world could hear and know:

You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.

Thirdly, we should be united in action. So Jesus says in 14.10:

… it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

The unity of believers should not be merely a unity of theory or of thought. We should be working together, with a common purpose, bound by a common love. That doesn't mean that we should do the same things necessarily. But a Christian who seeks to serve Christ on his or her own in isolation from other believers is seriously missing out. And a congregation that tries to serve Christ without reference to other congregations and believers is not what God wants it to be.

I had never been out of Europe when I first visited St Philip's, Mburi in the Diocese of Kirinyaga in Kenya. As many of you know, we have a long-standing partnership with them. As soon as I arrived there, I was put to work, going round the village talking to people about the gospel. I couldn't cope with the mounds of food that were so thoughtfully put in front of me at every home I entered. Indeed there are so many things that could divide us from them. But those very differences served simply to make even more obvious how profound was our unity. We were brothers and sisters, with one purpose, doing the same work, across the continents. It was an amazing, supernatural experience. And it is repeated over and over.

Not that everything is perfect yet. Far from it. You and I remain sinful. Our brothers and sisters in Christ remain sinful. In natural families it has been known for siblings to squabble and fight over petty things, and shut themselves away. It can be enough to drive parents to almost to distraction. God has to be incredibly patient with us, his children. 'Accept one another then,' cries the apostle Paul, 'just as Christ accepted you…' We are to be united with our fellow believers, as Christ is one with the Father. We should be content with nothing less. Repentance is in order when we grieve the Spirit with our disunity.

And what is the unity that God presses us into for? What's the point of it? That brings me to my next heading.


Thirdly, THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH'S UNITY IS THAT THE WORLD WOULD BELIEVE IN JESUS

The prayer couldn't be clearer. Verse 21:

May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

And again in verse 23:

May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

The unity of believers has an evangelistic impact. Why? Because unity is not what unbelievers expect. That's especially true when people or groups that are very different are seen to be one. It is not what they experience themselves. In the world, difference divides. In the worldwide fellowship of believers, difference makes for a well functioning body with all the necessary different limbs and organs, each playing their part.

So when unbelievers see unity between believers, they start to ask questions: How do you do that? And the answer is: Through the gospel. It is the gospel that creates our unity, such as it is so far. And that means that when other people see it, they get lead on to consider the gospel itself.

That's why the fractures that exist within the church, local and worldwide, and that exist between believers, are so serious. The Scriptures do not plead with us to be united so that we can have a cosy time. They plead with us to be united so that the world can be saved.

But, you may say, the trouble is we fail and fail and fail. Our sin gets the better of us. Will the unity we experience now really make an impact? And will it ever be complete? Will the family squabbles and disagreements ever be finally resolved?

And the answer is simply: Yes. How can we know? Because of the fourth and last lesson that I want to draw from verses.


Fourthly, THE PERFECTION OF THE CHURCH'S UNITY IS ENSURED BY THE PRAYER OF JESUS

To be sure, there is a profound challenge to us in all of our lack of one-ness in these verses. But this is not primarily Jesus rebuking our failures and encouraging us to be one. This is a prayer. This is a window on to what the Son and the Father are cooking up together. Whatever Jesus asks from the Father, the Father gives him. When Jesus prays, it happens. In the end the unity of believers is God's work, not ours. And Jesus prays in verse 23:

May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Jesus didn't die in vain. His prayer is not refused. The church is one. The church is becoming one. The church will be one. Completely.

Let's pray. Rather than praying ourselves, let's hear Jesus praying for us. So when he says 'them' and 'they', that's you and me. That's us. I pray for [them], that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Amen