John 17:20-26
Have you ever noticed how much harder it is to be a neighbor today? Consider the popularity of ‘the introvert” right now from the way communities have moved as well as social media. Without a front porch, there is no way to hang out, with a garage you don’t even have to walk outside, with phones you don’t have to go looking for others, and with smartphones you don’t even have to answer your door anymore. There’s almost a shame to being an extrovert. It’s all about taking your own space. I don’t agree that this is the way God intended. Granted, life wasn’t ever meant to be a mess of giant crowds all your life, but we are made and designed to live in community—together.
In Jesus’ last prayer before standing trial, we hear from His heart and a big piece of that prayer centers around the importance of the believing community sticking together. Jesus is praying for unity in the church and we are going to look deeper into that today. This is the next D in being a 4D church/disciple – DELIGHT – specifically regarding other believers. Jesus links unity with Him and with each other as the driving force for world evangelization. As we come together (like the barrel of monkeys) in love and unity (singularity of purpose), our impact in this world will grow and people will come to know Jesus because of our witness. To make that happen, we’ve got to come together.
God’s Image is a Unified Design
While neighbors started disappearing a long time ago (like discussed above) the pandemic really did a number on pushing people towards isolation. There were efforts to help people stave off isolation (along with the mental health effects many suffered), but many of them were distant (such as trying to visit people through windows at a nursing home) and gave people an excuse to trade real community for the internet. Humans are made to be together. We’re never meant to be at it alone. This is the whole point of creation – coming together as one! Jesus prays specifically about this at the beginning of the passage. This is why God did all He did – to bring us all together, and there are examples all over that model God’s desire: the Trinity is our first model of unity in distinctness, but also the church as the body of Christ, a marriage where two become one, etc. These are all designed for us to see the reason—the goal is community in Christ.
Unity is the Most Basic of Needs
God gave us community out of love—sorry introverts, it is a gift, not an obligation. He stamped his image on us and called it very good (Gen 1:31). He is imprinted on us, which includes His desire for community. God is passionate about this. In v24, Jesus says how He wants us to be with Him – this is about desire. We are made for community BECAUSE God wants to be with us! So, He made us to want it too! This goes beyond need and into desire. Life is better when we are together. Just think about how we all work in nature: falling in love, finding friends as kids so easily, even the sin of the tower of babel started because people wanted to stay together instead of spreading out all over the globe. Hebrews 10:24-25 shows us how important this is for us–internally!
A Team Requires Mates
He wants us to want to be together, but that can be tough considering how different we are. 1 Cor 12-14 is written to help foster unity despite our differences. It’s perfect that ch13 is in the middle because love for each other is what holds everything else up – we must put others before ourselves (love) to see each other’s differences flourish and we become one complete picture – the body of Christ. This is vastly important for us to do, as v26 makes it clear that we must be unified together to accomplish the task at hand – making Jesus known to this world. We cannot accurately portray the risen Christ without each other. God’s love passes from person to person. It was never designed to come through mass media, and while there is great admiration for those involved in ministries like the Jesus film, for example, (we have friends that serve there) they all know that the gospel doesn’t pass through the video, but through the human connections of those involved and inviting others to the video.
Next Steps
When the church is unified, God’s presence is most active and His love is most clear—something people recognize— “there’s something different about this place”. Jesus praying for it means it is not an automatic thing, it takes work. We cannot accurately portray the risen Christ without each other. We were made to come together, we are empowered when we come together, and we have a purpose to come together. We need to come together!
- Seek connection in your church family. Go out to lunch today with others from here!
- Memorize 1 Peter 4:8-9 and pray over what God can do in you. Journal.
- Host a dinner party with another believer to invite unbelievers over—work together to build community.
You can’t win at Barrel of Monkeys by yourself. Don’t buy into the isolation trend but lean into your church family.
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