Apr 25 - He Prayed That We'd Be One

Read John 17:20-26

Context: Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane praying alone while his disciples drift off to sleep. He has prayed in agony asking God to take away the pain to come and he has reconciled his destiny. He prays that his disciples may be sanctified by truth.

Text:
20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." (NIV)

taken from www.biblegateway.com

Can you believe that Jesus actually prayed for you? We, the believers, were on his mind even when he knew his arrest and crucifixion were imminent. It is so sad to me, though, that as a church we have not lived up to his prayer. His top concern for us is that we may all be one. In fact he mentions it three times.

As Christian believers we have segmented ourselves beyond recognition. I don't have any idea how many denominations there are, and more probably pop up each week because we can't agree on what the Word says. And each group believes that it has the right answer.

I may be on a soap box here, but why is it that we stick so closely to our own kind? Even FCCF, which proclaims to be nondenominational, doesn't interact with other churches in the area. It seems that we could really change the world, or at least our little part of it, if we could join together with the others, Baptist, Church of God, Nazarene, etc. and focus on what Christ wanted us to do -- to be in unity to let the world know that God sent his son for our sakes. Imagine the change that all the Christian teens, banded together, could make in our schools. That all the Christian women and men could make in our community. Do we rejoice over sinners saved and baptized in any facility other than our own?

It feels like we have let Jesus down.