Many of us are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)."Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name,your kingdom come,your will be doneon earth as it is in heaven.Give us today our daily bread.Forgive us our debts,as we also have forgiven our debtors.And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from the evil one."
Throughout the centuries, this prayer has taken on a life of its very own. No other prayer has been prayed by more Christians since the time of Christ. This prayer is inscribed on plaques and pictures. It has been scribbled unto the covers of countless Bibles. It is read at weddings, funerals, and other special occasions. A good number of churches read it in unison every Sunday during worship!
For many Christians it is the only prayer they pray out loud. After all, it is an infallible prayer because Jesus himself taught us this prayer! Its appeal is that when you pray this prayer, you always know you are praying the Lord’s will and you always have the assurance of an answered prayer. But there are some today who question whether it should be called Lord’s Prayer.
The reason is that this prayer in Matthew 6 was taught and given to the disciples. If anything, this is the disciple’s prayer. It was the disciples who needed to pray for daily bread, forgiveness, deliverance from temptation and evil, and for power to know and do God’s will. Not Jesus.
Now the prayer our Lord prayed is found in John 17and it spans twenty-six verses! In this prayer Jesus prayed for himself, and he prayed for his twelve disciples, and he prayed for everyone who would believe in his name— namely, the Church! This prayer was one of the last prayers Jesus offered up to the Father before he was crucified on the cross and buried in a tomb. Luke tells us in Luke 22:44 (NIV) that Jesus prayed this prayer with such intensity that his, "sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." This prayer offers us a window into Jesus' heart and soul.
This morning I’d like to focus on the part of the prayer where Jesus prayed for us. So let’s read it together out of John 17:20-23 (NIV)."My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 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."
I mentioned that this prayer offers a window into Jesus' heart and soul. Our prayers uncover our desires. They reveal our passion and focus. They make a statement about our hearts. They show what themes are on our thoughts. So in Jesus’ prayer we discover those traits that he most wants to permeate his people.
Jesus prays for us to achieve visible unity.
Some time back a farmer from Bruno, Nebraska named Herman Ostry faced a crisis. Some heavy rains near his farm had forced water over the banks of a nearby creek. As the waters rose they began to engulf small parts of his farm. It just so happened that his barn was in the path of the rising floodwaters. Mr. Ostry and his family had to act quickly. Before they knew it the floor of the barn was covered in a few inches of water. And then it was covered with five inches, ten, twenty, and then thirty.
As Mr. Ostry raced into town to summon help, his son Mike constructed an elaborate latticework of steel tubing and he nailed, bolted, and welded it on the inside and outside of the barn. He then attached hundreds of handles to the steel latticework. And right when most people would have given up on that old barn, some three hundred forty four volunteers showed up on their farm to do a good old fashioned barn raising. Together these volunteers hoisted the seventeen thousand pound barn off its old foundation and carried it half the length of a football field and set it on a new foundation. In just three minutes the barn was placed on its new foundation, out of harm’s way.
In his prayer to the Father, Jesus acknowledged that there are some things that just cannot be accomplished without unity, without a team effort. As the waters rose, Herman Ostry and his son could not save their barn by themselves. They were powerless. Their barn was just too big and heavy. No man and no piece of equipment could move seventeen thousand pounds of wood and steel. But Mr. Ostry and his boy knew the power of a united effort. They knew that with over three hundred good people helping, that barn would only weighed fifty pounds to each volunteer!
It is truly amazing what we can accomplish when we rally around a common cause. Our corporate faith can move mountains. Our corporate faith can displace oceans. There are things we can accomplish together that not even the best of us can accomplish alone, in isolation.
Jesus prayed for our unity in Christ.
Jesus prayed that everyone who would believe in his name would be united. "May they be one. May they be brought to complete unity." From the beginning, our church has sought to restore Biblical unity to the Church.
In recent years I have become increasingly fascinated with the portrait of the early Church that is painted through the book of Acts. In Acts 4:32-35 (NIV) we read this description. "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need."
Alone, the apostles could not meet all the needs of the people they ministered to. All alone, the apostles would have been forced to send people away hungry, homeless, unclothed, sick, and unnourished. But together, the Church was able to pull together and form a united front and overwhelm the needs among them with their generosity. This happened to the extent that, "There were no needy persons among them."
Jesus prayed that we would have a visible, recognizable, working, cooperating unity. In our community and right in our midst there are some pretty overwhelming needs. There are people who are being crushed by addictions to everything under the sun. There are marriages that are being dissolved every day. Families are in crisis. Entire families are struggling financially. They don’t have healthcare. They don’t have the medicines they need. They cannot afford quality housing. They cannot get the education they need for their children. And many of these families struggle in anonymity. They are not looking for a handout. They don’t want any sympathy.
There was a day when Christians pulled together, and with a united front they built hospitals, shelters, schools, colleges, universities, churches, and orphanages, and started missions. They overwhelmed the needs in their respective communities with unprecedented generosity. Alone, they could not satisfy the needs among them, but together they carried the needs of their day and set them on the firm foundation of Christ’s love.
This unity strikes a chord in Christ’s heart. It is his heartbeat. It is his desire for us. But I want you to notice a second dimension to Jesus' prayer.
Jesus prays for us to become a visible testimony.
Consider Jesus’ prayer again in John 17:20-23 (NIV). "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 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." Twice in this prayer Jesus prays for our unity and twice he prays for testimony. He prays that we might be united in proclaiming his love to world.
This past week I was reminded of a quote given by Max Depree. Max Depree is one of the leadership gurus of our time and he says, "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality."
And so let's talk about reality for a few moments. Let's talk about the reality that Jesus sees. I was re-reading a book by Jim Peterson called Living Proof. His book has had a profound impact on my life. It is all about sharing the gospel naturally. In the beginning of that book he talks about a time when his family traveled by ship from America to Brazil. The trip took sixteen days and there were one hundred twenty passengers on board the ship. It just so happened that half of the passengers were missionaries headed for Brazil and the other half were just tourists.
Now they weren’t exactly on a luxury cruise liner. There wasn’t much to do except eat, sleep, walk around, or talk to strangers. As he recounted that trip Jim Peterson said, "I couldn’t imagine how any tourist could get through that trip without receiving a thorough exposure to the Christian message. More ideal conditions for evangelism couldn’t exist." In no time at all he and his wife had begun building relationships with other passengers and had the opportunity to share the message of Christ several times. As they shared their faith they began wondering what the other fifty-eight missionaries were doing. He was concerned that there might be a serious case of overkill!
Later in the trip Jim noticed a group of the missionaries sitting on the deck. He joined them and expressed his concern that they would coordinate their efforts so they wouldn’t overwhelm the passengers with the message of Christ. Well he totally misjudged the situation. The missionaries began looking around at each other. They had come under conviction and a degree of guilt. Finally one spoke up and said, "We just graduated from seminary and didn’t learn how to do that sort of thing." Another said, "I don’t know. I have sort of a built-in reservation against the idea of conversion." Still another said, "I’ve been a pastor for three years, but I’ve never personally evangelized anyone. I don’t think I know how, either."
Jim remembers saying to the missionaries that, "If we, in sixteen days and with a one to one ratio, couldn’t awaken these sixty people (tourists) to the gospel, we might as well forget about the ninety-five million Brazillians. Perhaps it would be just as well if we would all catch the next boat north." A few hours later a few of those missionaries were knocking at his cabin door and had worked up a plan to evangelize the ship.
What did Jesus labor in prayer about?
Do you want to know what Jesus labored in prayer about? He labored in prayer knowing that of all people, established Christians would be the most reluctant to go into all the world. He labored in prayer knowing that of all people, established Christians would be reluctant to go even next door to proclaim the love of Christ. Jesus labored in prayer knowing that of all people, established Christians would be reluctant to talk to even the person next to them in their pew about the love of Christ.
George Barna says that fifty-four percent of all the people in worship in church on Sunday morning have never made a decision for Jesus Christ, even though they have been coming to church for ten plus years!
You may be asking how that can be true because it sounds so unbelievable. The reality is that we Christians don’t share our faith. We are complacent about the spiritual destinies of millions of Christians. George Barna says that one million people every year in America die without a savior. These people are our neighbors. They are our children and our spouses. They are our coworkers. They are the family down the street that we haven’t gotten to know. They are the attendant at the gas station. The teller at the bank. The clerk at the grocery store. The fellow driving our cab. The guy installing our gas grill. The wrong number at the end of the phone line.
Some realities to change.
The reality is that we are often like the sixty missionaries who haven’t shared our faith. The consequence is that our loved ones will spend a Christ-less eternity paying for their every last sin with their very souls. There is an urgency to this unity that Jesus labored in prayer over. There is an urgency to the Church uniting in the cause of letting the world know Jesus' love.
The reality is that we need to reprioritize and refocus ourselves. We have a mandate to go into all the world to share the good news of Jesus Christ, the message of salvation. We cannot be quiet any longer about our faith. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to stir our consciences and hearts and shake us out of complacency and compel us to unite in the mission that Christ commissioned us to carry out. Alone, we can only do so much. But together united, the gospel can circle the globe. The whole world can discover for the first time the love of Christ, and be transformed and secure in the hope of eternal life.
Jesus prayed, "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."
Over the last few years I have witnessed a half-dozen of my friends leave the ministry. These friends didn’t have some moral failure. They didn’t make some foolish choice that wrecked their ministries. They didn’t get fired for lack of training or incompetence. They just couldn’t get the support of their church’s leadership. They couldn’t get their congregations to focus on making the main thing the main thing. They went into churches pumped and filled with a passionate desire to unite God’s people in this awesome task of sharing the gospel but they encountered blank stares and outright hostility at times.
On several occasions in my years of doing ministry I have had people look me in the eye and raise red flags about the new life God was producing in their midst. "They took my seat. They are so immature. Did you see that kid with the hat and earring on in worship? What about me, aren’t I just as important as those lost people? I just assumed that family never would come to church. Haven’t you heard of their reputation?"
Jesus prayed to change the realities that he knew would one day plague his Church and render her powerless in her mission. This unity is a unity of purpose so that the world may know about Christ. And it is just this sort of unity that we must first seek to restore in our church.
We have to let the plight of those without Christ trouble us so deeply that we will overcome our differences and preferences and reservations and concerns and social apprehensions and shame and complacency to become the answer to the prayer that Jesus prayed some two thousand years ago! And this shouldn’t be a guilt thing for us. It is a privilege. It is an honor. It is a responsibility that we willingly embrace for having been allowed to participate in such a marvelous salvation!
And this is precisely what our church has sought out to achieve. We are part of the Restoration Movement. A movement to restore the Bible to its rightful place in the church. A movement to restore Christ to his rightful place in our lives and in our church. A movement to restore biblical unity for the cause of world evangelization. A movement that we should all be proud to participate in. A movement that is changing the world through the power of the gospel.
But this is a movement that begins with us here in this church, at Lakeside Christian Church in Springfield, Illinois. And all of us, including myself, can be challenged today by Christ’s prayer. This is a prayer for missional unity. This is a prayer for us to rise up so that the world may know Christ.