“The Promise of Unity!”

Jesus prayed for unity of His disciples in John 17:11: “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.”

The key motive for our unity is the very essence of God! God is unity and we are to be like God!

The promise of unity is at the heart of God and how God has revealed Himself to us throughout the Bible and through His Son Jesus Christ because God within God’s self is a perfect unity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Listen to the ancients in the Athanasian Creed (approximately 450-600 AD) call us to a unity of faith in the unity of the Godhead:

[Our] faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal. As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty. And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity [true foundational principle] to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord; So are we forbidden by [our faith] to say; There are three Gods or three Lords. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity none is afore or after another; none is greater or less than another. But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal. So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.^[1]

I like the old creeds. Of course, all creeds are secondary to rightfully interpreting Scripture. The history of creeds and councils is focused on the unity of the faith and our fellowship. They sought to clarify through creeds what we believe about God. They sought to give the Church a consistent and reliable language for a great unity of faith and practice.

Paul was passionate about the unity of the Church, too! He opened his first letter to the Corinthians with a plea for unity in 1 Corinthians 1:10-17:

Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say you were baptized in my name. Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.

In their excellent book Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible, E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien explain about the situation Paul was communicating to the Church in Corinth:

We might ask ourselves what caused the divisions in Corinth. All we know is what Paul tells us: “One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ’” (1 Cor 1:12). What likely goes without being said for us is that the church was divided either theologically or over devotion to different personalities. These are two common causes of church divisions in the West. We tend to fall out along doctrinal lines or because we are drawn to one charismatic pastor over another.

It is possible, though, that the divisions among the churches in Corinth were not theological. We may be failing to note ethnic markers that Paul sprinkled all over the text. Apollos was noted as an Alexandrian (Egyptian) Jew (Acts 18:24). They had their own reputation. Paul notes that Peter is called by his Aramaic name, Cephas, suggesting the group that followed him spoke Aramaic and were thus Palestinian Jews. Paul’s church had Diaspora Jews but also many ethnic Corinthians, who were quite proud of their status as residents of a Roman colony and who enjoyed using Latin. This may explain why Paul doesn’t address any theological differences. There weren’t any. The problem was ethnic division: Aramaic-speaking Jews, Greek-speaking Jews, Romans and Alexandrians.^[2]

Built on this deep disunity, that still exists today, Paul said to the Church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 3:21-23, “So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.”

I am joining with Paul in declaring 2,000 years later that we only have one unity, and it is the same unity that the Church has been declaring and defending through councils and creeds for thousands of years: Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and coming again!

The unity of God’s people is intended, by God, according to Jesus’ prayer, to reflect the very unity of God Himself! This is our greatest gift and our hardest fruit—our unity which bears the character of Christ, the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)! This is our mission; along these same lines, Paul said in multiple places such teaching as Galatians 3:26-29,

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

Based on this teaching on the promise of unity, I call you to three mindsets, which are action items for our congregation and for the Church through the world:

With this rich understanding that our unity needs to rise above all human boundaries and distinctions, as well as all human fear and ambition, let us hear Jesus’ prayer for His Church from John 17:20-26:

I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even 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 sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.

You can listen to the message here:

You can watch the message by clicking HERE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Historic Creeds and Confessions, electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Lexham Press, 1997). For a diagram that visualizes this creed see https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasian_Creed.

[2] E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 66.

The Promise of the Father’s Discipline

Hebrews 12: 5-11

— Kids’ time: 

Do your parents ever tell you ‘no’?

What is something your parents have said NO to, or told you that you can’t do that you really want to do. Why do they do that? Don’t they want you to just be happy?

What would happen if you got everything you think you want?

Do they ever make you do something you don’t want to do?

What would happen if you never had to do something you didn’t want to do?

(Examples: What would go wrong if you never…. cleaned your room? went to school?)

SOMETIMES there are things we really, really want, something that seems so good and we think it would make us so happy, but it’s actually not good for us. And in fact, not only would it not make us happy, it would make us hurt or sad.

And SOMETIMES there are things that don’t seem appealing at all, things we really do NOT want to do or have, but they’re actually very important and we need them very much.

God gave us parents to help us know the difference, because right now you’re little and you need help making decisions. At some point, you’ll be big and your parents and the people who take care of you, they won’t tell you what to do anymore (well, not if your family is functional and healthy, although you might end up like Everybody Loves Raymond). But mostly, parents stop telling you what to do and at some point its YOUR job to take care of yourselves.

You know what though? They tell you no sometimes and make you do things sometimes because they love you very very much, and they want to help protect you and keep you safe so that you eventually make it to THIS big, and so you’ll know how to be a good, and kind, and wise person who has a healthy and meaningful life. That’s what they want. They want you to be ok and to be well.

Read Hebrews 12: 5-11

Background:  This passage written by a preacher, who is not currently with his congregation. The preacher wants to encourage his people because they’re weary and at risk for simply giving up their pursuit of Jesus. They’re worn out. Hebrews is written to a group of Christians whose commitment (for some) is waning and attendance is lax. Perhaps the challenges of their lives had demoralized them, because they had hoped Christ’s return would have come sooner, and they are losing hope. So the preacher is encouraging them to not give up but keep going with Jesus.

The Christian life is hard. Following Jesus and having faithful and obeying God is hard. Sometimes it may feel like it’s not even worth it, and maybe it would be easier to just stop trying to have faith and obey God. The preacher reminds them that they aren’t alone, that their struggle is the great struggle of all Christians, in all times and all places. It’s not just you; this struggle is our common experience as brothers and sisters, here and globally, now and for hundreds of years. “True participation in the Christian faith always carries a price.” Life is hard for everyone- but for a Christian, in the midst of all the common challenges of being a human, faithfulness to Jesus is especially costly.

The preacher here is like a night nurse coming to the bedside of his hurting congregation to reassure them that the pain they feel is not a destructive anguish but a healing one. The suffering they are experiencing may seem like it is generated at random from the harsh forces in this world, but it is actually the expression of God’s parental discipline, which is a good thing.

How is God’s correction a good thing?

To a child, something that is very appealing might actually not be good for them, and consequently something that is very unappealing may be exactly what is needed. So the rules, demands, correction, words of advice are not arbitrary at all, but full of purpose and meaning, like the guide wires on a young sapling, helping it have the best chance to grow tall and strong and healthy.

**The idea that all of human suffering is the result of God trying to teach us a lesson is untenable. This is not meant to be an absolute principle, but a pastoral encouragement, a way to make sense of the struggle to be faithful, and encouragement to not give up. He is not trying to explain all suffering. This passage is not meant to be interpreted as a broad theology for suffering. We may not find useful lessons in things like war and famine. God is not cruelly creating pain to teach us things. This is a pastor trying to encourage his congregation to see how God is at work in their challenges, because often those very circumstances make us stronger, wiser, more faithful and loving. That doesn’t mean we look back on our suffering and say, “sorrow has its lessons” but rather we look back and say “Thank you Jesus for being faithful to help me”. He is offering them a perspective on their struggles, that will encourage them and also help them to see what they are going through not as evidence of God’s anger and rejection, but a sign of his care and embrace.

Vs. 1-4 give us the example of the suffering of Jesus, as a MODEL, (not as a judgement), of how to endure struggles. It’s not that “what you’re going through is nothing compared to what Jesus went through”, but rather, “you can get through this if you keep your eyes on Jesus, who was victorious over every kind of struggle and can carry you through your own”.

Vs.12-13 concludes with an exhortation, to a group of people who were stumbling and faltering, to recover their strength and stay the course. Don’t fall down- don’t quit. Keep going. Renew your trust and commitment.

What is the big idea of this passage?

God disciplines us because he loves us and wants us to grow up to be like him.

Consider how God wants to teach and develop you through the difficult challenges of life. If you’re feeling weary and starting to give up, don’t. Don’t quit. Resolve to trust Jesus, look away to him, and endure what life is throwing at you. God is not abandoning you or being cruel to you- he is a good and caring father. He wants to make you more like himself so that your life will actually be full of joy and goodness and peace.

Read: Lamentations 3:19-33

Questions to ponder: 

Where in your life is God trying to discipline and shape you?

Are you resisting Him, or submitting to Him?

Can you trust that He knows what is truly best for your life?

You can listen to the message here:

You can watch the message by clicking HERE.