johnthattheymaybeone

John 17:20-26

20 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;

21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:

23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

24 "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.

26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

In five chapters, 13-17, John gives us the record of what Jesus said and did on the night He was arrested and put on trial.

As this section of Scripture begins in Chapter 13, we find Jesus giving His true disciples [Judas was reprobate] a powerful illustration of humility. Here is the Creator of the universe, the manifestation of God to men [He who has seen Me has seen the Father [14:7], the only Savior of sinners [14:6], taking on the role of a servant as He washes the disciples’ feet.

Is there anything that you are to proud to do in the service of Christ? Is there a single soul that you know of that you think is a worse person than you are? Do you for an instant think that you are better than someone else?

Have we learned humility?

Humility does not come naturally to lost men and women. Pride is the opposite of humility and it is pride of self-sovereignty that must be overcome if a person is to be saved. As long as a person believes his own will is before God’s will they will remain under the righteous wrath of God.

Then the question may be asked, “Have we learned humility?” Or the question could be, “Are we included in the number of people that Jesus prays for in John 17:20-26?”

In Chapter 17, Jesus first prays for Himself [1-5]; then He prays for the eleven men who are there with Him [6-19]; and in our text today [20-26] Jesus prays for the church. Ah, there is the question!

Whom or what is the church? Whomever or whatever Jesus is praying for here, “That They May Be One…” is the church but whom or what is the church?

In this prayer as Jesus prays for Himself [17:1-5], we learn that God the Father has given a people to the Son and that the glory of God involves the Son giving eternal life to as many as the Father has given to the Son.

Not a one will be lost.

As Jesus prays for the eleven [17:6-19], we learn that the world will hate them because they are no longer part of the evil world system. They are no longer part of the evil world system because they have been sanctified [set apart] by the Truth. God’s Word is Truth. [17:17]

In verses 20-26 Jesus prays for the “those who will believe in Me…”

In the future from this statement there will be people who will hear what these eleven have to say about Jesus and they will write NT Scripture and they will authenticate what other men like Luke and Paul will write and people will come to saving faith in Jesus Christ through their word.

Do you savingly believe in Jesus?

Then you came to that understanding “through their word” by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Can you accept that “those who will believe in Me…” make up the church?

Then who or what is the church?

There are two concepts that are viewed as the church. And these two concepts have both overlapping inclusion and mutual exclusion depending on your understanding of the nature and makeup of the church.

One concept is called the visible church and the other group is called the invisible church. There are other names given to these two groups.

The visible church simply means that there is a group that may be seen by human eyes; they are visible. Then there is a group that can only be seen and infallibly known by God. This group is the invisible church which is the true church.

Any visible church may include hypocrites and deceived persons who think they are saved because of something that they have done that makes God obligated to save them. They are religious, as were the Pharisees, and they are just as lost. Jesus told the Pharisees that they did not know God and Jesus will say to all of the religious and lost souls, “I never knew you.”

The invisible church are those people of all ages and races and tongues who by the grace of God trust in Christ and add nothing of their own merit to the atonement in which Jesus the Christ shed His precious blood for sinners.

Now don’t let me confuse you but these two concepts of the visible and the invisible church are not understood and agreed upon by all who claim to be believers in Christ.

The visible church is a complicated concept because some people believe that the local visible church is the only church and when the physical local “church” is not assembled there is no church. People who hold to this view deny that there is an invisible church.

Certain of these groups go further and teach that if you are not a qualified member of their particular local visible church that you cannot be saved.

They each teach that you absolutely must belong to their group or you are not saved. They will all deny that they teach salvation by works but if you must belong to their group in order to be saved what is that but a form of works salvation?

On a much less restrictive level we have in this room, a local visible church. We have assembled here a group of people who have come together to worship Christ in a corporate body. They are members of a local body of Christ called Vineland Park Baptist Church. There are other people here who are very welcome to be here but they are not on a list of “members.”

While we believe in a local visible church, we make no claim to be exclusively the body of Christ, that we are the only true church and that you must belong to our number in order to be saved.

So we have the visible church and it takes several forms.

But if it is the visible church that Jesus prays for we are a very long way from seeing anything close to unity. What began at Pentecost has argued and split and fought and had schism until we have thousands of “churches” that have no interest whatever in being unified with any other group.

And those visible groups that do come together usually compromise the Word of God. Many years ago, Malcolm Muggeridge attended a meeting of the World Council of Churches and reported that, “They agreed on almost everything because they believed almost nothing.”

What about this local visible church [Vineland Park Baptist Church]? We will not join and support any group that denies the authority and sufficiency of the Word of God. Even among local churches in our own Southern Baptist affiliation there are churches that deny the Word of God.

But we know that what Jesus prays for is sure to come to pass. So it cannot be the visible church, some local body that Jesus prays for, it must be the invisible church or the true church.

Within the visible church there is the true church. By that I mean that among those who publicly profess faith in Jesus Christ some may be deceived and are still dead in trespasses and sins. But there are others who have saving faith and they make up the true church.

We have looked at this Scripture many times but it is so dreadful a warning that we need to be reminded of it often in order to keep us from presumption. Look at Matthew 7:13 ff.

Matthew 7:13-23

13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

22 Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'

23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

There is no way to understand this Matthew 7 passage except that there are many people who are on the “broad way that leads to destruction” to whom Jesus will say, “I never knew you.”

These people that Jesus says He never knew are on a church membership list and most people would think that they are saved; but they are not saved.

In another place Jesus warns about the tares that grow among the wheat. Cf. Matthew 13:24-30. The tares look like wheat but there is no fruit within. The tares are the lost people that are on the broad way that leads to destruction.

Do you see that membership in a visible church, as important as that is, does not necessarily mean that a person in saved.

Jesus knows those who belong to Him and He prays for them and they make up the invisible church. The invisible church is called invisible because it cannot be seen infallibly by human eyes. But the invisible church is the true church and it is these souls that were given to Jesus before the foundation of the world and who in time come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. These are the souls that have by faith had their guilt charged to Jesus and have received His righteousness by faith. They claim no merit in themselves but God sees them as He sees His Son. God the Father loves them as He loves the Son and that love was in place before the foundation of the world. But those who were given to Christ must come to Christ. It is certain that they will come to faith but they must come to faith! Oneness!

Who are they?

John 6:37-40

37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.

38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.

40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

Your eschatology [doctrine of last things] always interprets Scripture for you. In my studied opinion I see the church in the Old Testament. Some say that there is no church in the OT.

My understanding is that the invisible church is made up of all believers of all time. The OT saints were saved in the only way that anyone can be saved. They believed in the doctrine of Substitution. They believed that one day in time that God would actually make atonement for their sins. [Romans 3:21-26]

How else can the Apostle Paul, in Romans 4, bring forth Abraham as the prime example of justification by faith and not by works?

Abraham worshipped God in truth before there were any Jews. Abraham, according to Paul, was and is in the church.

What else can Paul mean in Galatians?

Galatians 3:7-9

7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."

9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

And in Galatians 6:16, Paul refers to the church:

And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

The “Israel of God” is the invisible church. The “Israel of God” includes all of Abraham’s spiritual children, Jew and Gentile. The “Israel of God” includes those who Paul refers to in Romans 9:6 where he writes, “For they are not all Israel who are of Israel.” There among fleshly Israel was the elect remnant who believed God along with faithful Abraham.

In the New Testament the word translated “church” always refers to an assembly of people and never to a building. You should know that it wasn’t until about 400 A.D. that Christians began to meet in public buildings and not in private homes, or even in caves and other hiding places.

ekklesia (ek-klay-see'-ah); from a compound of NT:1537 and a derivative of NT:2564; a calling out, i.e. (concretely) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation (Jewish synagogue, or Christian community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both): KJV - assembly, church.

In Nave’s Topical Bible I found over 56 terms used in the NT to refer to the church. Just a few examples:

The people of God,

the Body of Christ,

the Temple of God,

the branches on the True Vine,

sheep,

God’s heritage,

heavenly Jerusalem,

the Kingdom of God,

the Kingdom of Heaven,

the Bride of Christ, et al.

The church is called the “body” of Christ. The metaphor is the human body with a head and parts that serve the head. Sometimes the body of Christ refers to the local visible church.

[See 1 Corinthians 12:12-31].

12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.

15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?

16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?

17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?

18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.

21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty,

24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it,

25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.

26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.

29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?

30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.

Sometimes the body of Christ refers to the invisible church:

Ephesians 5:22-33

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.

24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,

26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,

27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.

29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.

30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.

31 "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."

32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

There is a mystical union between a man and his wife who become one flesh and there is the mystical union between Christ and the church. This is the church that Jesus prays for in John 17:20-26.

This is included in this prayer and this is what it means to be “in Christ”.

In John 10:16, Jesus said, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” That is “oneness”, one flock and one shepherd.

This is the church that Jesus prays for in John 17:20-26.

Now I will end this message with a few extemporaneous comments on our passage. If you are reading this sermon on the internet I invite you to read the passage in a meditative manner and stop at each phrase and try to think prayerfully about what Jesus has said and how it relates to other things that He said in this prayer and in other places.

John 17:20-26

20 "I do not pray for these alone [the eleven], but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;

21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:

23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

[Can you grasp the thought that God the Father love you as much as He loves His Son?]

24 "Father, I desire [will] [A clear statement of equality] that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory [Romans 8:18-19] which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.

26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." [What encouragement!]

Jesus prays for the church. There is nothing more glorious to God the Father than the unity of His Son with the church. Christ returns for His church, as He promised in John 14:1-3, and that is it. You can search all through the NT and you will not find anything eschatological in substance but “this present age” and “the age to come.” There is nothing to follow the church at the end of this present age.

In the age to come there will be a new heaven and a new earth and no more sea. [Revelation 21:1]

Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it,

There is nothing beyond the church.

Are you included in the church that Jesus prays for?

Are you part of that “oneness”?

To you who have full assurance that you trust only in Jesus for your eternal destiny I say “Praise God for His unspeakable gift of grace.”

If, however, you do not have the confidence that you are saved, I ask, “Why do you doubt” Why do you halt between two opinions?

Choose this day if you will serve Christ or self!

Will you receive the gift of God?

John 1:12-13

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Jesus prayed, “That they may be one…”

Are you included in this union?