Studies have shown that regardless of church attendance,
most people pray. Most of us however do not know that Jesus prayed for us as well.
If Jesus prayed for us, he must have prayed something
important. Also, if he prayed for
something then we have an easy way to align our prayers with Jesus when
we pray in agreement for the same thing that Jesus prayed.
Jesus prayed for us in the Garden of Gethsemane just
before he went to the cross for our sins. This is what he prayed:
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for
those who will believe in me through their message,21 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. 22 I
have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are
one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to
complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved
them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)
Jesus prays that we be one or in other words,
united. Unity is actually a big topic in
the New Testament. Jesus prayed for it three times, the apostle Paul spoke
about it often. How do we achieve unity? Many have tried to bring
unity but often unity was thought to meant conformity. Conformity
is only achieved when we all look, worship, behave and believe exactly the
same thing.
This approach hasn’t worked and has led to conflict and
even bloodshed when it is imposed. The Apostle Paul said that we
are one body with many parts….but all one body. In another place
Paul said that there were no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor
female but these diverse people all were part of the body of Christ so unity
wasn’t about conformity but about diversity.
So how do we achieve unity? Well, in the context of
John 17 Jesus prays that we be ONE with the Apostles. In this I
believe that unity can be achieved when we embrace the essential gospel of the
Apostles. We know what that is when we read the ancient creeds. We believe in God the Father, we believe Jesus was born of a
Virgin, that he suffered and died for our sins….we believe He is coming
again.
Jesus prayed for us as he prayed for those that would believe through the
message of the Apostles. This large group that includes you and me is the
great body of people that are called by various names and are Christians,
believers in Jesus Christ.
The Newsboys, a Christian rock group from Queensland Australia, recently released a new album, “Restart”
that features a song, “We Believe”. This
song embraces this common and essential belief that we share:
We believe in God the Father
We believe in Jesus Christ
We believe in the Holy Spirit
And He's given us new life
We believe in the crucifixion
We believe that He conquered death
We believe in the resurrection
And He's comin' back again, we believe
The even more important aspect of unity is the answer to the question
‘why’. Jesus provides the answer when he
prays, “so that the world may believe that you have sent me”.
Jesus communicates clearly that our “oneness”, our
ability to embrace each other as diverse members of the same Body of Christ
enables us to help fulfill the Great Commission….to make disciples of all nations.
When we demonstrate the unity of the Church, the true
brotherhood of the faith the unbelieving world witnesses that Jesus has been
sent by God to be not only the messenger of the one true gospel but also as the
messiah, the risen savior of the world.
