Jesus' United Body

As you have heard over and over again, Lord willing, what we'll be thinking about together as a church is the unity of the church. This topic is something that burdens me as a pastor more than most things. One of the most demanding jobs of a pastor is to keep everyone focused on what should unite us without making us uniform. We need to be able to encourage and embrace diversity while also focusing completely our commitment to Jesus Christ and walking in him together. Do you need to do anything else? We would stop being the Church of Christ. It requires difficult work, correcting with care those who want to insist on things that are trivial or unrelated to Christ and his glory. Refocusing those who have turned their focus to some doctrine or practice back to look at Christ and His power to save and the sufficiency of His Word. It's restoring with gentleness those who are caught in transgression and unrepentant sin. I have to admit, looking back on the commitment that I was called to as a pastor, it kind of reminds me of the vows I made on my wedding day. I looked at those words, I knew where they were right and good to commit to, but I had no idea what I was getting into. I had no idea how demanding they would be, I had no idea how much it would require. And I have to say, in both marriage and in the pastoral ministry and being a member of the church, all called to maintain the unity together, I had no idea how God's grace would be so abundant and trustworthy. See, our unity is one of the sweetest things about us, Jefferson Park. The unity under the headship of Christ, the unity to focus on his cross and resurrection, the unity to gather under the authority of his word. It's one of the sweetest things, and sometimes it feels like the most fragile. At my worst, I lose sleep over it. At my best, it sends me to my knees in prayer and praise. We must praise God that our church is united. wanting to hear God's Word together, identifying with Christ and what he's called us to. I believe we are church united, but because we're united, because we're focusing on Christ, because we're exalting Christ together, because sinners are coming to be saints by the proclamation of this church, you, the members, we must realize that there is always something lurking that could divide the church. Should be surprising. Satan hates the glory of God. God is most glorified when his people are gathered together, united to exalt Jesus Christ. This is why it's so difficult. Uniting together as sinners to exalt and proclaim the Savior. This is difficult. This isn't glorious. This isn't glamorous work. It is glorious. It is the joy of the Christian to walk together with brothers and sisters in love, but it's also painful. Because as we walk together more, we see more of our sin that needs repented of. We see more of other people's ugliness and their sin and how difficult they are and that we need to continue to walk with them. And sadly at times, we see some deny the faith and walk away. This morning, we're going to see that Jesus is praying to the Father for our unity. As you heard, and I'm very thankful for how Don read the passage and prayed us through it. It's our responsibility to be united. That's heavy. That's weighty. We are responsible for our unity. all different kinds of people, distorted by all different kinds of sin, distracted in all different ways by the world. By grace alone, we will be united. You're new to us. You've just joined us. We're in the gospel of John. You're using a few Bible. If you have a Bible, I encourage you to take a few Bible in front of you. We're on page nine zero three. We're coming to the end of Jesus is teaching ministry. We're in John 17. This is called the high priestly prayer. This is the end of the climactic end of the final discourse where Jesus has been teaching his disciples the most essential truths, I believe, for the church to be the church. And here he's ending it with a prayer, basically, I think he's praying everything he's already taught. He's not lifting up to God because it's God who will keep us and unite us. If you look back to the passage, Jesus first prays that he will be glorified, that is the first and utmost end of God, that it's his glory. That's why we've been saved for his glory. He then prays for the disciples that they will be kept, they'll be sanctified. And now he turns. To not just those specific disciples, but he turns to the church, those who will hear because of the disciples. This is us specifically. And the first thing he wants to pray about us who have heard through those disciples. is for our unity. Here, beginning in verse 20, the prayer of Jesus, the son to the father. I do not ask for these only. But also, but also for those who will believe in me through their word that they may be all be one, just as you father are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us. So that the world may believe that you have sent me the glory that you have given me. I have given to them that they may be one, even as we are one. I and them and you and me, that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know you sent me and love them even as you loved me. Our message this morning from this passage is very simple and clear from the passage. Christ saved us to be united as a church. He called out of people to himself to be one body under his headship. Now, I want us to look at some of the specifics of this passage, because it's very simple. It's it can be kind of complicated when you look at it in all its details, but I want to show you there's there's really two main sections here, 20 and 21. and then 22 and 23. So we have four verses and we can really break it up into two different halves. But that doesn't make two different points. I believe Jesus is repeating himself here. That's a hopeful thing for us to repeat and to hear over and over again because we're forgetful. But here he's saying, I think, essentially the same thing. Let me walk through the first pair and show you the structure because it's very clear. I do not ask for these only. but those who believe in me through their words. So the very beginning of this is that there's a people that will come to believe because God revealed himself. Now, this was basic point I want to make here in that first declaration. I have come to give my word. Now, these disciples have received it. They believe it. They will now go share it. God's people are dependent on God's word. Now, notice after that declaration that there's a revelation that takes place, that the word of God must go forth so that people can believe there's three that's. That. They may all be one that they may also be in us, that the world may believe that you have sent me. There's three purposes here. They have heard the word to be one, to be in us. So the world will know that that's what is basic passage here. That's the most basic structure we can get. And I think we'll see 22 through 23 parallel this not exactly, but very close. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them revelation. That they may be one, even as we are one, I and them and you and me, that they may become perfectly one. So that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you love me." Notice the very last purpose. They add the so there, but it's the final purpose there for both passages, both sections. It ends with the world knowing. It ends with the world seeing the love of God and the unity of the believers so that they know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's the ultimate end. So it begins with revelation. That they may be one. Now this is also a nice parallel. Look at verse 21. That they may be, may all be one just as you Father are in me and I in you. Drop down to verse 22. The first that. That they may be one even as we are one. Twice he mentions that the standard of unity is the Father and the Son. So we can see here, there's this clear pattern of thinking. There's the revelation of God that then makes a people one, as the Father and the Son are one, so that they may be in the Father and the Son, so that the world will know through their unity that Jesus is the Son of God. So, here's the pattern of our sermon this morning from the passage. Four words. The basis, the standard, the reality, the purpose, the basis, the standard, the reality and the purpose. We are one because we've heard the gospel. We are one because we've heard the gospel, that's the basis, that's the foundation. The standard, we are to be one like the father and the son. The standard, we are to be one just as or even as the father and the son are one. The reality, we're to be perfectly one in the name of God. That identity is what makes us perfectly one. And finally, the purpose so that the world will believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Let's first look to verses 20 and 22, the basis. One, because we have heard the gospel. We are to be one because we have heard the gospel. Jesus says, I do not ask for these only, but for those who will believe in me through their word. Verse 22, the glory that you've given me, I have given to them. When Jesus says the glory that you've given to me, I've given to them, he's not referring to the same kind of glory he's talking about in verses one through five, I don't think. There he's talking about the eternal glory he shared with a father. When Moses asked, let me see your glory, how does God respond? I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. I will be gracious to those to whom I will choose to be gracious. When Moses asked to see God's glory, he reveals his character. He reveals who he is to his people. And I believe when Jesus is referring to the glory here, he's talking about, I am revealing the character of God. I'm allowing the people of God to know more about the name of God, which refers to his character and how he acts towards his people. When he says, I'm not asking for these only the disciples, he's asking also for those who believe in their word. Well, the disciples, what are they going to say? They're going to tell them they're going to tell us they're going to tell they're going to proclaim only what Jesus has taught. Just as Jesus came to speak only what the father spoke to do only what the father did. So the disciples, us included, are to say only what Jesus has said and do what Jesus has done. That is the message. We're a book religion. That may be startling to some of you. We need to affirm that. We're a book religion. We are dependent upon the revelation of God. We don't know God unless He speaks. He's spoken in His Son. Those who heard His Son and knew His Son, they were illuminated and inspired by the Spirit to give us these words. Now, when we say we're a book religion, we don't worship the book. But we trust that the God who is worthy of worship has told us how to worship him in the book. We worship by the book. We don't worship the book, but we trust it. It's the very word of God put into words for us. If we go back, we can see that Jesus is the perfect revelation of God. He is the perfect revealed glory of God who took upon, walked with us as if... I'm going to back up here. I'm getting excited. We go back to John chapter one, the prologue. The word became flesh, he pitched his tent among us, the glory of God dwelled on this earth in human form. We can see the glory of God, we can see the perfect revelation of God when we look at Jesus, but we're not walking and talking with Jesus anymore. Jesus said if he goes to our advantage because the Spirit would come and he would lead men to write inspired, inerrant letters and words for us to follow. And now we have the Spirit indwelling us so that we can know those words. A very basic point for us to worship, God must speak first. Something most of us probably take for granted because we've been hearing God for some time. But think about how dependent we are on God to worship him. Unless he speaks, we don't hear him. Unless he speaks a word of love to us, we never realize we're sinners in need of a savior. He must speak first, we are completely dependent upon his word. Now, notice. He moves from the call of hearing the glory of God to the purpose. They have believed so that they might be one. God has given his word so that they might be one. We're not saved to stand alone as Christians. We're not saved to continue in our autonomous rebellion against God. Remember, what happened in the fall? Adam stopped saying, I'm going to do what God wants to do. And he said, I'm going to do what I want to do. Adam tried to be an independent individual. For someone to say they're a Christian and yet still try to say, I'm going to be an independent individual Christian is to continue in their rebellion because God, the king, called us to unite together. In humility and submission under the king together, we're united to worship the king who died for us. If we're divided, it's to pursue our own desires. Why do we gather? It can only be because we are redeemed believers in Jesus Christ. We trust him alone as our Savior. We're completely dependent upon him for all that we have. He must be the only reason we gather and unite. How do we gather? Again, we gather under the revelation of God. It's actually good news we're a book religion. That's good news. It may sound a little weird, but we are. It's good news because God's given us boundaries. He's given us guidelines. He's given us markers. He's given us clear instruction on who He is and how to worship Him. According to Jude, we are to hold firm to the faith that's been revealed. According to Ephesians, the church is built up on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. The Bible must be our authority for how we unite together as a church. It's how we maintain the unity. We submit to the Word of God together to worship the King together. You see, our worship, it can't be looking for the least common denominator. That doesn't really work. It has to be to come together to have the strongest commitment to glorify Christ, to love God, and to love one another. I don't want to depress you. If coming to church or being part of a church is merely attending on Sunday, that really doesn't capture it. If you look through all the scripture, and I'm going to try to give a big picture later of all of, well, some of the high points of what scripture says about the unity of the church. It requires people to really know one another, to be invested in one another, to be committed to one another. You can just go through and do a study on the one another's of scripture. It isn't just coming and singing songs together and hearing a long sermon just to get ready together. It's coming to be part of each other's lives. It's coming to be changed and affected by one another to experience Christ in one another. I cannot press you enough. Be part of intentional, clear discipleship. I'm trying to present the gospel so that general sin is being confronted. We need one another to give that specific diagnosis and that specific prescription for how Scripture and God will change us. Let's now look to the ultimate standard, one like the Father and Son. Jesus first prays that those who go out, they'll spread the Word of God, that we would all be one. And then this standard. This is a high standard. He says, may they be one just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, or dropped into verse 22, may they be one even as we are one. This is the highest standard of unity. God's own unity, the perfect God and his unity. That's the standard for our unity. The father and son are united because they have the same purpose, desire and goal. They're committed to the glory of God together. The church must have the same purpose, desire and goal in order to fulfill this high standard. The perfect son and the perfect father are perfectly united. Does our unity reflect this? This is high standard for church unity, and I want to first ask a very provocative question. Did Jesus fail in this prayer? Has he failed the church because this is Jesus asking the Father, keep them as one, may they be one? And if we know anything about the church, we typically think, well, the church of the ages has been divided. The church of the ages has been full of divisions and disagreements. There's differences everywhere, abounding, it's been fragmented and fighting. I want to address this because I think it's an important question. As we look at the universal church, the church through the ages, it's not just different then, it's different as we're on the city of Charlottesville. But first, let's ask the question, did Jesus fail because we know the church has always been fragmented and fighting? First, as we seek to answer this question, I want you to clearly see that in the history of the Old Testament, God always kept for himself a faithful remnant. We saw this in Jeremiah. Israel constantly failed. That's kind of one of the main themes of the Old Testament. They failed, they failed, they failed. That's why Jesus Christ is such good news. He succeeds. But even when the people of Israel are constantly failing, we see that he keeps a remnant for himself. This is good news because we can see that he did the same thing through church history. I want you to think about it this way, though, we look back in history, we can see that those that control popes, bishops, fathers. They were not promoting Christ, oftentimes they were leading the church astray. The church, if you look back to it, it should discourage you. But if you actually look at what the prominent churches are preaching today, or what many consider to be the prominent teaching of the church today, today should concern you more than yesterday. Today should concern you more than yesterday. You see, today's popular message is this. If you obey God, he'll make you happy. If you turn on the TV and you watch the TV pastors and the televangelists, most of the radio teaching, if you obey God, He'll make you happy. The prosperity gospel is the prominent gospel being preached today, and it's a false gospel. It says if you obey God enough, He'll fix all your problems. Your financial problems, your physical problems, your emotional problems, your relational problems, and maybe even your spiritual ones. You see, at least the Roman Catholic Church problem was that they said, if you obey God, you'll be right with God. That actually is better than the prosperity gospel, because they at least know that the ultimate end is that you would have a right relation with God. The corruption we have today in the prominent teaching is that if you obey God, he'll make you happy. As if your happiness is the ultimate goal. Friends, if you're going to be discouraged by the history of the church, we got to be discouraged about today. and the false teaching that continues to corrupt the gospel. Secondly, to be more encouraging, there is a universal church that is in absolute agreement. All true churches at all times and all places have affirmed certain clear truths. You can see this, no matter how far churches went in error, there are always clear Christian teachings that the church has always held in focus. These include, there is one God and that one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God has revealed himself in the Bible and speaks God's truth without error. Jesus is the Son of God, fully God and fully man. He died on the cross as if a sinner so that we could have peace with God. He rose again on the third day and ascended to the Father and sent the Spirit to give His people new life. His church is made up of those who believe in Him, obey His commandments, observe His ordinances. Jesus will return and renew all things. These are essential truths that you can see through the church all the time. They can actually be summarized in the Apostles' Creed, or they rather are summarized in the Apostles' Creed. We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. We believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered in her Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. He rose again on the third day from the dead. He ascended into heaven and ascended to the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body. and the life everlasting. There's basic, clear truths that the church has always held to. We may know these more as the fundamentals of the faith. Jesus was born of a virgin, died on the cross for sinners, rose again and will return. What I want you to see here is that the church, there's always been a witness that focuses on the most important truth. And if you were listening, it was all about Jesus. Who Jesus was the son of God who took on flesh what Jesus did. He died on the cross for sinners. He rose again. He will return. There's always been a church that believed these things, promoted them and proclaimed them. I want to stop here. Ask you if you're not a Christian. There's a number of things that can distract you when you ask that question. The one thing you need to ask yourself is that is Jesus Christ That's what John's pressing us toward. Is Jesus Christ God's son? Did Jesus come and do the things that the Bible claims he did? Did Jesus Christ come and teach things the Bible says he taught? Because Jesus Christ said, we're all sinners. We will face a just judge and we will be found guilty. Unless we believe in Him who came to walk the life we refuse to walk. He came to live the life of righteousness so that when He died on the cross, God punished Him for all the sins of all those who believe in Him. You see, if we believe in Jesus, our sin is no longer our sin and our guilt is no longer our guilt because it was placed upon Him and the Father crushed Him. as a just judge so that we will no longer be judged. If you're not a Christian this morning, I want you to press in. Is Jesus the son of God? Because if he is, that means you're a sinner standing before and you will stand before God as guilty. And you need to believe in Jesus that he died for your sins and rose again. Please do not leave here without talking to somebody about that. Let's look back at the standard. God has called us to be united like God. This is a high standard, and we could talk about the universal church, which you just did, but I really want to talk about it as the visible church, because Jesus says this should be a visible unity. The world will see it. This should be a unity that we see. It's not just a doctrinal unity. It's a unity that someone should be able to look at the local church and see. So how do we, as members of Jefferson Park, attain this unity. If we're going to have the same purposes, desires, and goals, we have to repent of our sin. That's the number one thing that divides and distracts the church. James is very clear. What causes fights and quarrels among you? It's your desires, your evil passions. We must deny ourselves and take up the cross. By striving together for godliness and walking in the Spirit, we will kill the flesh and we will be united in Christ. We have to constantly be pointing one another to Christ, pointing one another to repent of sin and to find comfort in His grace. If we want to have this kind of unity that Christ has called us to, it begins with repentance and faith in the one God. So to our third point. The reality we are called to be perfectly one in the name of God. Now, I really want to focus on verse twenty one and what it says here that they also may be in us. Here, the progression is very clear, they've heard the word, they will be one just as we are one. They will be in us. So we don't come as individuals. We come as believers who now have a new identity. This new identity shapes the way we think about ourselves and one another. We're only going to be perfectly united when we all come together, recognizing we're now saints. We're all purchased by the blood of Christ. We are now called to love one another. There's a lot of things that might distract us that we could unite under. We're not united by a number of things. Let me list some of them. We're not united because of a style of music. You may have heard that today. It was very clear. There were two different kinds of music being played. There was new songs and old hymns. I say this because this is probably the most divisive issue not related to gender and sexuality that divides churches today. The other one's very important, but this one, it really can easily divide a healthy evangelical church. There are important theological issues to deal with with music. And I know this because I hear it. Everyone has their own personal preference. You have those who love Bill Gaither, those who love Keith Green, and those who love Keith Getty. And some people don't know who any of those three people are. But they span the generations. The good news is you can listen to whatever you want to listen to any time you're not gathered with the church. There's this thing called the radio and the stereo at home and the MP3 and the iPhone. You can listen to whatever you want to. But what I want to encourage you to think about in the church, when we come together, we're coming to sing as one voice. We're not coming to put on our own personal opinions and our own personal desires with the music. We were coming to sing with one voice, and I want to say I'm just so thankful for our musicians who do an excellent job of facilitating our music. So there's the one voice of the church that stands out the most to worship Christ. The two things we're not united around is race or a nationality. This is actually quite amazing, as I've been studying the unity of the church. If you look back at all the epistles and all the teaching, race and nationalism are the two things the church is constantly battling with in the early church. This is what most of the epistles are writing against. An unhealthy view of their own nation, and especially an unhealthy view of one race. If you look to Revelation 5, We see a beautiful picture. Every nationality, every race, every tongue singing one song to one king. That's not what we're waiting on. That's what we want to be. That's what we should strive for. The church today should be a little taste of heaven as we long to have every nationality, every race, every tongue gathered together to sing a song to the one Again, there's entire epistles written to this issue. We have to be careful in uniting around something that the Bible is clearly saying we were to go against, to embrace all the diversity that God has created. Why are we united? Let's not just talk about what we're united against. Why are we united? We're united because we're sinners in need of a Savior. We're united because we've been called to Christ. We're united because we've been purchased by the precious blood of the Savior. We're united because we've been delivered from this world and adopted into the family of God. We're united because we have the same commitment to His Word as the final authority. We're united because Christ came down to save us. This is where that identity comes in. That they may be in us. That we gather under the one name, Jesus Christ, and that is our unity. It has to be our individual identity, and then it becomes our corporate identity. We gather as the Church of Christ. Our last point, the purpose. One, so that the world will believe in Jesus. Look at the last two declarations, that they also may be one in us. So that the world may believe that you have sent me. Look down at verse 23. So that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me. The greatest evangelism tool God gave the church is one another. As non-Christians come and see the diversity. See, sinners wrestling with their sin with one another as sinners in the world come and they see people who should have nothing in common. Who do have nothing in common except one thing, Jesus Christ united in that worship, for that is the greatest evangelism tool God gave the church. You also have to recognize it's one of the most dangerous things, our diversity, our sinful diversity, are going after on sin and dividing the churches of reason, people want to stay away from it. I'm thankful that when I go out and I'm sharing the gospel of people, I can, with a full heart and assurance, invite them to come and worship with us, come and experience the worship service of Jefferson Park, because I know when they come, they're going to be warmly greeted. They're going to hear the saints saying they're going to hear the gospel. They're going to see the gospel lived out. I want to encourage you, church. Four grown adults have been baptized this past year. All four of them couldn't point to one single individual that helped them come to the Lord. They all pointed to the numerous individual members of the church that came together that God used for their salvation. That's how it's supposed to work. That's how God designed it. So that when somebody comes, they see something different. They want to know more about it. And every different member working together, growing together, comes alongside and sinners become saints. It's a beautiful big picture. He's called us to be united so that we come together and we we set aside all our differences, it doesn't matter. We come to glorify Christ alone in the world season, and they know that the Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now I want to go back a little bit. As I said in the introduction, Jesus is really summarizing everything he's taught the church in a prayer. We can go back and we can put a little flesh on what it means to be one. John chapter 13. There are two different commands. Love one another. Serve one another. If you want to know how to be one, this is how to be one. You go back and you look at what Jesus taught on how to be one. He said, love one another. Now, look around for a second. There's a lot of visitors, but try to pinpoint the people you know. Everyone you're looking at is a very difficult person. Everyone they're looking at is a very difficult person. Because we're sinners. We're so bent on ourself, and that's what makes us difficult. We have to remember that our call to love one another has nothing to do with how lovely that other person is. Because our love from God has nothing to do with how lovely we are. It's the fact that Jesus Christ said, I love you. I've made you my beloved child. I love them. I've made them my beloved child. Now. You're adopted together for eternity. You're to love one another. You're to serve one another. Christ came and washed his disciples feet. Those who are going to deny him even betray him. We serve one another, not because someone else is worthy to be served. We serve one another that because by serving his body, we're serving the one who is worthy of the head. Look at John 15. We'll look later, we're not going to look at the passage. But Jesus calls us to bear fruit. We're to repent of sin and rely upon Christ. This is the big picture of Ephesians 4. Our sin, we have to realize this, our sin affects the whole body. This is why Ephesians 4 is so important. We are to maintain the unity of the body by pursuing godliness, by pursuing Christ, by warning one another, by being watchful for one another, by singing songs to one another. We are to be members of this body by relying upon the rest of the body. If we're not bearing fruit, if we're not repenting of sin, we're dividing the body because we're letting our sin affect the unity of Christ. This is why, as again, Don prayed so faithfully already, we press that we do not forsake the assembling of one another. We have to grow together. Ephesians 4 is so clear. You don't grow by yourself. We don't grow with individual Christians, if you're growing as standing alone as a Christian, you're not growing according to the way God's growing to cause you to grow. He's got us to grow as a body. United as members. This is why we take membership seriously. This is where the word membership comes from. It's not a club. A body has members. Therefore, we call it membership. United together. We're united together, not in a casual way. We're united together in battle. Battle against our own sin. Battle against the evil one. Battle against the world. When you go to battle, if you're in a real battle, you don't want someone who's just casually going to hang out next to you. You want to know somebody who's committed to the cause and committed to you so you can be committed to them. So a church membership isn't casual. It's a commitment because it matters. People's lives depend upon it. Your life depends upon it. We have some college students. I'm thankful to see college students on their first week back. The Christian fellowships are very beneficial for you. But I need to encourage you to consider your need for the local church to grow you up with other adults so that you will grow in maturity in the body of Christ. Something else that we can see from Jesus teaching John 15, he says the world will hate you. The church is a refuge. The church is a place where sinners are being hated. They come to receive love. They have come to receive the encouragement we need in a world that hates us. Let me make something very clear. The church is not a safe house for sin. We don't protect one another's sin. We don't guard one another's sin. We're a safe place for sinners who long to be saints, to be corrected. But when sinners come, we're not here to try to protect sin, we we want to expose it as God's word does and then heal it with the balm of the gospel. We're all coming as sinners, we all need corrected, we all need to be teachable. To press in finally on the need for unity, I'm just going to do a highlight listing of teachings on unity that you can look at later. The Church of Acts begins united, Acts 2, 42. They were devoted to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to prayer, to breaking of bread. They had all things in common. They were united with their funds because they believed in the one purpose. We see the church quickly divided. The Greek women weren't getting the right amount of food or the same amount of food as the Jewish women. That's why we created deacons, why God created the office of Jesus Christ, set aside the office of deacon. Immediately right after the church, there's a racial divide. And the church corrected it. The first council and the only council we ever know of in scripture was set aside to correct a racial divide. God intends for his people to be united. Romans, the whole point of Romans is to teach how Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ under the new headship of Jesus Christ, the new Adam. In Romans 12, we are called to be one body with many members, to see the need for one another and each other's gifts, to live with one another in Christ. In 1 Corinthians, Paul is correcting the problem of saying, I'm of Paul or I'm of Peter, I'm of Paul, Apollos. No, we are in Christ, and that's the only thing that unites us. First Corinthians five, it says, remove those who are persisting in sin to protect the unity of the body. First Corinthians 11 is a call to the Lord's Supper that gives clear instructions. Wait for everybody to come and have the meal in common. It's a meal that points you to Christ together. First Corinthians 15, we're united in our hope of the resurrection. Second Corinthians six, we're called to be one temple, not unequally yoked with unbelievers. Galatians. Yeah, that's the one angry book in the Bible. But but read and think about it, Paul is telling the church, not the elders. Not the deacons, he's saying church, how did you let that false teaching in that corrupted the entire body? The church is responsible for the teaching. The church is to embrace the gospel together and is held accountable together for what is being taught. Galatians 5. Says, do not devour and bite one another, but love and serve one another, that sounds like Jesus in chapter 13 of John. Galatians 6. Shows that our doctrine matters, he declares, let the law of Christ abide in you. bearing one another's burdens. Ephesians Ephesians could easily be described as a book where we're all being built up together in the one body. We just heard chapter four maintain the unity, one body, one spirit being built up to the one head and mature manhood. Genesis two is about the Jew Gentile divided again. It needs to be reconciled. Philippians, we're to call we are called to have the same mind that Christ had in us. I'm sorry, we're called to have the same mind that Christ has to consider others more to consider others better than ourselves and their interest as more important. Colossians, the entire book is about Christ and his sufficiency. He is the head of the church and we are to work together under his headship. The pastoral epistles, just about how to be united as a church, Hebrews. Call to enter boldly together, not to forsake the gathering. I want to slow down here with James. James one, verse five, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and will be given him. Let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways. What James is pointing to us here is that we need to be single minded. Christ has come down and given a single minded focus on us to love us. And as believers, we turn our minds to be singly focused on him, not distracted by our desires and passions and the things of the world. If we continue to look through James, we see that the most divisive and damaging tool that we have is our tongue. Rumbling, biting, complaining. What causes fights and quarrels among us, James asks, is our sinful desires expressed with our mouths. First, John, you could summarize the book. Love God, love one another. Friends, I go through this long list to show you that the unity of the church is always at the forefront of most of the epistles. The writing against the racial division, the writing against the sin that causes division. It must matter to us. The only way we are going to be united is when we say the only thing that matters to us is Christ, his glorification, his exaltation. He is our head. We follow his word to know how to function as his members. We as a church, I'm speaking as a member here, we're all called to maintain that unity. With humility, teachability and a submission to Christ and his clear word. We pray with me. Father, forgive us. Because we all have selfish intent. We all have words that we have spoken and will speak that have divisive power. We thank you that your desires for us to be a united people. So that we can enjoy the glory of being a body united under Christ. Help us to be that people. We need your grace, and we praise you that your grace is abounding where our sin abounds. We praise you that your grace is sufficient to make us who you have called us to be. Lord, for those who are straying from the faith, for those who are denying the faith, even in our body. Lord, help us to know how to care for them. Help us to know how to speak the truth of love, to correct, to admonish, to encourage. Help us to see how dangerous our sin is, Lord, so that we come to others and are dependent upon their investment in our life as they teach us and guide us. I thank you, Lord, for the faithful brothers and sisters of this church. Help us to know how to unite, to be watchful for one another. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.