Sermon – John 17:1-11 – So That They May Be One

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church
Sermon – John 17:1-11 – So That They May Be One
November 2, 2008

This morning I will be preaching from the Gospel of John. For over a year now a group in this church has been studying John chapter by chapter, verse by verse in our Sunday morning Bible class at 11:30. This morning we will be looking at John 17 and I decided that this passage should be shared not just with the Sunday School class but with the entire congregation. If you would like to talk about the scripture I will be reading and preaching on this morning please join us at 11:30 in Montgomery Hall.

But first please pray with me. Father, Son and Holy Spirit just as you are one help us to be one, one church, one faith, one body of Christ. Unite us in the bread and juice of communion. Unite us into one hope of eternal life as promised by Jesus, in whose name we pray this morning. Amen.

John 17:1-11 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. 6 "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

As our Bible study has looked at John we have detected a pattern in the gospel. Five times we have seen the same thing repeated. The pattern started with a sign, Jesus turned water into wine, healed a blind man, or raise Lazarus from the dead. Each sign was more spectacular than the previous and generated greater numbers of followers of Jesus and more excitement in the crowd. After each sign Jesus would try to explain the greater reality that the sign represented. But he would use cryptic language, words with double meanings, which both communicated what he was trying to say while still hiding the full implication of the sign. Jesus’ purpose was to preserve his life and ministry until the appropriate time when the full meaning of the signs would be revealed.

One way that Jesus hinted at the meaning of the signs was in his self description. Jesus said things like, “I am the living water” and “I am the light of the world”. In the Bible study group we scratched our heads as we wondered what this could possibly mean. The common words in all of these sayings were “I am”, the same words God used to describe himself to Moses at the burning bush. The implication was clear; Jesus was indirectly claiming to be God.

As people saw the signs and listened to what Jesus had to say some believed and some did not. Those who believed received the promise of eternal life. So what is it that we are to believe in order to receive the gift eternal life? The answer to this question finally comes in the 17th chapter of John where Jesus talked directly, not in riddles, to the Father in prayer.
Oneness with the Father

The first thing that I would like to talk about from our scripture today is that Jesus explicitly claims to be one with God. What does this oneness with God mean? For one thing it means that Jesus and God share the same glory. Glory comes from being in the presence of God. So Jesus reflects the Father’s glory because he was in the presence of God. Oneness also means that when Jesus spoke he was communicating the word of the Father. So both the signs and explanations that we read about in the Gospel of John are both not just from Jesus but also from God and in this sense Jesus and God are one. But oneness goes beyond what Jesus did and said. The scripture passage tells us that Jesus has been with God from before creation. In the beginning Jesus already existed with God. So oneness means that everything Jesus said and did was from God with whom Jesus has always existed and will exist forever. So, Jesus talks, acts, and exists in oneness with God.
Knowledge that lead to Eternal Life

Now I would like to talk about Jesus’ claim that he revealed God to humanity. Anyone conversant with the Hebrew Scriptures would know about God. It was a rabbi’s job to study the ancient scrolls that make up our Old Testament and teach others about God. But Jesus was more than just a rabbi. Jesus spoke not just from scripture, but from God himself. And it is through the knowledge of God that Jesus can provide what we need to receive the gift of eternal life. So Jesus not only reveals knowledge of God to us but reveals to all believers knowledge that results in eternal life. So what is this knowledge of God that Jesus reveals to all believers? The knowledge Jesus was giving the believers throughout the Gospel of John was contained in those two simple words, “I am”. So, If we believe that Jesus and God are one then we will have eternal life.
Oneness of Believers

What Jesus wants and asked the Father to do is to make all of his believers one just as Jesus and God are one. Here Jesus is calling for the unity of the church. But as we look around today we see that the church is anything but one. We are divided into denominations and are separated one from another over differences of theology and practice. Last week we celebrated the Protestant Reformation that separated us from the Roman Catholic Church over the meaning of sacraments and other issues. Much of my education was spent learning the distinctiveness of being a Presbyterian. It is hard to justify all of these different denominations around the world in the light of Jesus’ prayer that we should all be one.

There are divisions even within our own Presbyterian denomination. Last summer our General Assembly opened the door to the ordination of homosexuals to the ministry of Deacon, Elder and Pastor. Our Presbytery will be asked to ratify this decision in March and the expectation is that some churches will leave the denomination over this issue. How can schisms of the church promote the unity that Jesus prayed for?

That They May Be One

For too long the church has defined itself at our boundaries by highlighting the differences we have. This is not what Jesus prayed for at all. So we all have to change our definitions of church. Rather than defining ourselves by how we differ from each other we should now consider how we are similar to each other. Let us define ourselves by the center of our faith rather than by the margins. Let us acknowledge that all churches, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, whatever are all one because of our core belief at the center of our faith that Jesus Christ is one with God. We need to remember that before there were denominations we were all simply Christian.

The oneness of the church is not something that we can do alone. We can’t have a oneness program here a Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church. And ecumenical meetings go on forever without a clear resolution. What we need is a gift. Unity in the church is a gift from God. So there is one thing we can all do. We can imitate Jesus and pray. Pray that the entire church will confess that Jesus is one with God and trust that one day God will make all of us one with Christ. And pray that the Presbytery will be given the gift of unity as it considers the important issue of ordination standards this spring.

The song we sang earlier captures this idea. “They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.” Do we really walk with each other, walk hand in hand? Do we really work with each other, work side by side? We will if all of praise, honor and glory is given the one Father, Son and Holy Spirit whom we worship today.

Shortly we will be gathered by God around the table for the Lord’s Supper. This table is the source of many of our differences. In the 16th century we fought over the meaning of the bread and wine. Today we are fighting over the requirements for those who administer and serve the meal as ordained ministers, deacons and elders. But Christ wants us to be unified around this table because it is here that the glory of God is revealed to all believers. This table is a foretaste of the heavenly table where we will all partake in our eternal lives. So this meal should be the source of unity for all churches. And that is why everyone who believes that Jesus Christ in one with God is welcomed to be one with with us.

O God, you are the giver of life. We pray for the church in the whole world. Sanctify her life, renew her worship, give power to her witnessing, restore her unity. Give strength to those who are searching together for that kind of obedience which creates unity. Heal the divisions separating your children one from another, so that they will make fast, with bonds of peace, the unity which the Spirit gives. Amen.