WELCOME
Good morning First Baptist. We welcome you to worship this morning. Be sure to remember your brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the week as you pray for them, and as the Holy Spirit brings their faces to your mind. Be sure to also connect with them in the ways that are possible. And if you have any questions or would like to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to contact the church through the church telephone and leave a message. (519-733-4144)
Songs
Call to Worship
Jesus prayed for his disciples, giving them into God’s eternal care. Know that you have been blessed with the love of the Savior. Open your hearts and spirits now to hear God’s word.
Songs
Prayer
CONFESSION:
Forgiving and gracious God, you have called us to be the church, to live out our Resurrection faith. You have asked us to place our trust in you and to bring to all the good news of your saving love. But we have failed to do this. We have given our faith a back seat to the troubles of the world and to the stresses in our own life. We look for the quick and easy answers. Forgive us for the smallness of our faith. You, who raised Christ from the dead, have promised to raise our spirits and bring us to new life. You have done this and yet, we remain static in our response to you. Clear our spirits of the clutter of everyday living. Help us to be open always to your word and your love. Challenge us to move in directions of peace and hope for all people. These things we pray in the name of our risen Lord. AMEN.
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
Forgiveness and love have been poured out upon you, to offer hope to all nations. You are called and blessed to be messengers of God’s good news to all people. AMEN.
Resurrecting Hope
Unity in Him
Today's Message: Pastor Dave Page
Welcome to worship this morning as we finish up our sermon series Resurrecting Hope.
We have been learning that the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us power to face the difficult things that come our way. Because Jesus Christ overcame death and the grave, there is nothing that we could possibly come up against that He cannot handle.
His resurrection was a shock to Mary Magdalene at the tomb that first Easter morning, but she was filled with hope to know He was alive.
Peter was restored after his denial of Jesus by the love of the resurrected Jesus. Jesus’ grace overcame all of his failings.
Last week, we found hope in the fact that Jesus wept at the death of His friend Lazarus. We discovered that he feels our pain and yet has the power to heal our pain.
All of this gives us a resurrected hope for our lives as well.
For our final week of this series, we will visit the last time Jesus is with His disciples before He is arrested and taken to the cross.
In our line of work we are often invited into some very sacred spaces and none can be more sacred than being with someone in there last few days of life. Usually at the end of someone’s life, the conversation that takes place is not about how many more vacations they wish they would have taken, how they should have purchased that big-screen TV, or how sad it makes them that they did not start a podcast.
Rather, what people talk about is how they wish they had more time with their families, how they want to heal a broken relationship, or how they would have spent more time helping people.
These conversations are around the things that truly matter most. When time is limited, people speak from the heart.
It is these final words that we really should pay attention to because they are the things that are most important to that individual. The things they want to make sure don’t go left unsaid.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time, He is accompanied by His disciples. Jews from all over the world would have flooded the area to celebrate the festival of Passover. They would commemorate the time in history when God rescued His people out of slavery in Egypt by sharing in a Passover meal. Jesus and His disciples find themselves eating the last supper together. Jesus washes His disciples’ feet, and then the Gospels record Jesus’ final prayer. These are some of His last words before His death, the things that matter most to Him.
READ John 17:20-26
Scripture Reading: John 17:20-26; Ephesians 4:1-6, 16
John 17:20-26
Jesus Prays for All Believers
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.”
Ephesians 4:1-6, 16
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Jesus prays for blessing over His ministry up to that point in time. He prays for protection for His disciples and power through His Word. Many refer to these verses as the priestly prayer of Christ. In verses 20-23, Jesus turns His attention toward His believers and followers.
What is unique is that the prayer is not just for those who were currently following Him, but He is also praying for anyone who would decide to believe in Him in the future. So, the prayer is not just for Peter, James, and John. This prayer is for you and me. Jesus prays that they, that we, would be unified and one as He and the Father are one.
THE LOVE OF GOD UNITES US ALL
The world we live in is incredibly divided. We are fractured along political lines, along theological lines, and everything in between. It seems we are always looking for a reason to entrench ourselves in an argument that ensures division. The Bible says it was because of “God’s great love for the world that He sent His only son.” God loves every human being on the planet. There is no one who is beyond the love of the Father. Jesus came to unite us under God’s love: that we might be one with each other and one with Him, as He is one with God.
In the late pastor A.W. Tozer’s book The Pursuit of God, he writes, “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So, one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
What a powerful view of what unity looks like. Unity does not mean uniformity. The resurrection hope of the world is not predicated on every Christian looking and acting as carbon copies. Instead, like white keys and black keys tuned to different notes, we work in concert with one another because of one unifying factor, the tuning fork.
What Jesus is praying for is that every Christian, worldwide and throughout history, would allow their hearts to be tuned to God Himself, so that in the midst of our differences and uniqueness, we might be unified in love for Him. And for what reason?
God’s love for the world. Every single person.
The unity that Jesus prays for is meant to be a beacon of hope to a watching world. That, as those who are far from God witness the love that exists between His followers, they might be drawn to Him themselves.
FIGHT FOR UNITY
It is a bit heartbreaking to read Jesus’ final prayer and what He cared about most and then think about the current state of His Church. Far too often today we have decided to focus on all the ways that we are different and at odds with one another rather than to focus on the things we have in common.
The truth is, living your life with love for God and love of people is no easy task. People will make you angry, people will hurt you, people will disappoint you and offend you, but as Christians we must strive to live in unity with one another.
The Apostle Paul speaks to the struggle of remaining humble, gentle, and patient in our relationships with one another.
READ Ephesians 4:1-6
I love how this passage is phrased in The Message:
The Message
14-16 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are easy prey for predators. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
Paul compares the Church to a body with many parts. Hands are connected to arms and arms to torsos because of ligaments and joints. All of these individual pieces are built up with love, and in so doing are able to accomplish a great work.
So, who are the people in your mind that you have written off as too different from you to live in unity with? Who are the people that you have determined don’t deserve the love of God? What if together we recognized that we could be a part of the answer to Jesus’ prayer with His disciples?
We can choose to be one as Jesus and the Father are one. And when we choose to do this, we might just see the world transformed.
In verse 3, Paul says that we are to make every effort to keep the unity of peace that has been given to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
- We must take the example that Jesus demonstrated throughout His life.
- We must carry ourselves with humility.
- We must remain kind-hearted.
- We must have patience with one another
Paul even gives the big reason why: It is because we have been given one spirit, one body, and one hope. When we fail to fight for unity within the Church, it becomes very easy to allow everything to become an “us versus them” situation. In our minds, there two sides, and if one side is right then the other side, of course, is wrong. If we are not careful, the individuals on the other side of the argument become enemies and we forget that they have intrinsic value because, as Jesus prayed with His disciples, He was praying for them, and when Jesus sacrificed His life on the cross, He did it for them.
Paul, in verse 6, says that there is one God and Father over all, and that He is in all and through all, including that church member that you don’t agree with and don’t even like. They are divinely worthy, and they are loved by God.
WE CAN DO MORE TOGETHER THAN WE CAN APART
The mission of God could have been accomplished by Jesus all on His own. One of the most astonishing things about our faith is that we believe Jesus invited sinful human beings, just like you and me, to join Him in His rescue plan for the world. Jesus had twelve ordinary men who bought into the idea that heaven could be brought to earth. Though He did not have to, Jesus chose them to be the ones who would carry on the plan of God. It is because Jesus knew they could accomplish more together than they could on their own. When God’s people work together in love, it brings hope to the world.
In and of ourselves, we don’t have much to offer. We are fragile and broken people. But something special happens when we unite over a love for God and allow that love to motivate us to change the world.
A common image that is used in the scriptures to describe what unity in Christ looks like is the human body. Paul elaborates on this only a few verses later in Ephesians.
READ Ephesians 4:16
Prayer
Lord, we sometimes wonder why you bother with us. Throughout history, you have called to humankind to be your witnesses. You have given to each a special blessing. But the historical record reveals the stubborn, selfish responses of your people. We think that we deserve your blessing and don’t have to do your will. We have acted in wicked ways far too often. Today you have called us together to hear the words of Jesus as he prayed for his disciples, telling you that his love for them is complete and that he believes in them. We would like to think that we are included in that number, that Jesus prays for us and loves us. And, indeed, he does. He has given his life for us. Now we are called to give our lives for him, to offer to all the good news that God’s love is real and powerful. God’s healing mercy is for all people. We offer our prayers for our families and our friends who are in situations of need, asking God’s blessings upon them. We raise our voices in choruses of pleading for you to be present to all your people, creating pathways of peace. Be with us, gracious Lord. Help us to witness to the world, not only by our words and our thoughts, but by our actions that your peace may be known. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.
Benediction
As Christ has loved you and prayed for you, go now in peace, bringing Christ’s loving words to all you meet. Know that Christ is with you in all that you do.