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John 17:20-24
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you would turn to John chapter 17. John 17. This is going to be a part 1 of 2, talking about community. It might be a part 1 of 3, but at least of 2, in which we're look at community and really tonight, I'm just going to talk about the theological basis for community. We're not going to look so much at how it's fleshed out, the practicalities of it.
Joel Brooks:We're gonna look at the benefits and the cost of community next week. But I wanna lay the groundwork for that tonight. So John chapter 17, we'll begin reading. We'll read, verse 20. This is a beautiful day.
Joel Brooks:I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. That they may all be 1 just as you, Father, are in me and I in you. That they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me, I have I have given to them that they may be 1 even as we are 1. I in them and you and me, that they may become perfectly 1 so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you love me.
Joel Brooks:Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world. Pray with me, Lord Jesus, we want to honor you and glorify you in this place. And in order for that to happen, we need you to send your spirit to open up hearts and minds, to press these truths in on us. People don't need to hear from me. We need to hear from you.
Joel Brooks:And so I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Perhaps the most familiar verse in the book of acts, is Acts 242.
Joel Brooks:And they continually devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. And this gives us a picture of what the new Testament early church looked like. But the word fellowship can be somewhat misleading, when you think they continually devoted themselves to fellowship. Because when I when I hear that word, and I'm not lying about this, the the image that pops in my head is Jell O molds. And it's just because I grew up in a church in which we would have fellowships and everybody kind of they were amazing at making all types of dishes, but they specialize in Jell O molds.
Joel Brooks:And so when I hear fellowship, I think of this enormous spread of food on tables set up in the gymnasium and jello molds. And and that's that's not what acts 242 is about, obviously. The word translated fellowship is the word koinonia. And at the the basic root of its meaning is shared or sharing. It's when people would share their feelings, their possessions, their faith, their life with one another.
Joel Brooks:This is koinonia. So fellowship really doesn't describe that anymore. I think the word we usually use to describe that is the word community or friendship. So community is something that the early church continually devoted themselves towards. And community is something that I think, the modern church really devotes itself towards.
Joel Brooks:It's become you're always trying to build community, trying to have functions that can create community. We're even named Redeemer Community Church. But how do you create that? You know, and what exactly is it? It's a proven fact that one of the best ways to kind of promote what we would call community, is through what we would call common interest groups.
Joel Brooks:You would set up your community groups or your home groups to be based around a a common interest. For example, if you, if you wanted to start a community group at your church and you wanted it to really grow, you can base it on like, we're gonna have a community group full of banjo players, or we're gonna have a community group full of people who love ultimate Frisbee, or we're gonna have a community group, you know, full of, people who love quilting, something like that. And, and you know what? That works. When, when you set up community groups that are based around that kind of common interest, they work, people bond together.
Joel Brooks:They're passionate about these things and it grows. And another thing you can way you can have community groups or build community is through what we would call stages of life community groups. And this is when, you you organize groups into different stages of life. So you would have your newly married community groups. You would have your just had kids community groups.
Joel Brooks:You would have your kids in elementary school community groups. You would have your old person, you know, community groups. You have your your leper colony known as the singles, you know, group, and you just kinda just kinda put them way off. You know, it's a group that everybody hopes to graduate out of. And I've just seen how churches have abused this group so much.
Joel Brooks:And you just kind of you kind of put them off the side, but but when you have those single groups and those old person groups and those, those married with kids groups, they work. They really work. If you wanna grow a church, you you organize groups that way. But is this community, is this what acts 242 is about? Is this what John 17 is about?
Joel Brooks:The the problem with these types of communities is that they work equally well outside of the church as they do inside the church. You know, your, your stages of life or, or your, common interest groups. I mean, you're going to find groups are gonna find like quilter guilds. You know, you're gonna find Buddha, the Birmingham ultimate disc, you know, association. You're gonna, you're gonna find people who share common interests and there's going to be a sense of community there.
Joel Brooks:Is that what's being talked about here? Because that can exist outside of the church that can exist apart from Jesus. And so I think a mistake that many churches have made in a mistake. We have to be very careful to guard ourselves of, as, as we are planting this church here is that we can make community be the, you know, be all and end all of everything. That community itself is the goal no matter how we attain it.
Joel Brooks:However, what we read here in John 17 is that community is not an end to itself. Community itself is not the goal. It's a means to an end. So let's look again at John 17, and this is one of those texts. You, you almost feel like you need to remove your shoes before you read.
Joel Brooks:The context is this, within hours of Jesus saying these words, he's going to be arrested. He's going to be crucified within hours of this. And what he wants to do before this happens is have one final meal with his disciples. And, the other gospels, they, they only account for, you know, what we would call the Lord's supper. They tell about the bread and the wine, but they don't tell really any other details about the meal.
Joel Brooks:But the gospel of John tells us 5 has 5 chapters devoted to what happens at this meal. Beginning in John 13, and we see how Jesus, he first, he washes his disciples feet. And then he goes and he tells them that he is going away, but he's going to send his spirit that they need to abide in him. And then finally, at the very end, we come to John 17 where he's no longer talking to his disciples. For his disciples before he's going to be crucified.
Joel Brooks:And, and if you want to know what's really inside of a person, what, what really is the longing of their soul? All you have to do is just listen to their last prayer over you. And that's what we have here. So look at these words again, verse 20. It says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word.
Joel Brooks:Just stop right there. Jesus is praying about his disciples and he says, Father, I'm not just asking these things for them, but everybody who's gonna believe their word. That means he is now praying for us here in this room. He's praying for the church. He's he's praying for all those who who after the disciples are long dead and gone, all those who are gonna believe.
Joel Brooks:So he's praying for us here. Verse 21 says that they may all be 1. Just as you father are in me and I in you, so they may also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Verse 21 is is one of the most stunning verses in all of the Bible. I always feel like anytime I read it, I read it wrong, or if I want to talk about it, I feel like I'm, I'm a heretic almost because the truth are so glorious.
Joel Brooks:You just felt like this can't be right. Read it again. It says that they may all be 1 just as you Father, are in me and I in you, that they may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. And what Jesus is saying here is that our community as the church, our oneness is to resemble his relationship with his father. And so he's he's talking about the trinity here is, you know, God's not one person.
Joel Brooks:God is 3 persons living in perfect oneness or community or fellowship with one another. Perfect sharing, love, all being displayed from the father to the son, to the holy spirit. And he's saying that the church now is to reflect that is to reflect the Trinity. And so if somebody, you know, asks you to explain to them the Trinity, don't do it St. Patrick did.
Joel Brooks:And, you know, pick up a clover, say, Hey, there's 3 leaves, 3 leaves, but one leaf. I mean, that's just bad. Or I remember, you know, first time I came across this, probably in junior high, you know, you could explain the Trinity by saying, you know, just as there is water and there is ice and there is steam, all existing 3 different ways, but made of the same, you know, chemical compound or whatever there. No. Somebody asked about the Trinity.
Joel Brooks:You know, we should say, look at the church. Do you see the oneness there? Do you see that the lives of sharing the intimacy, the generosity, the always wanting the glory of the other? Do you see that giving? Do you see that fellowship?
Joel Brooks:Do you see that there? That should reflect God himself. And look at the end of verse 21 here, and we'll look at the end of verse 23 because here Jesus tells us the reason that he wants us to be 1. Verse 21 at the end, it says, that so that the world may believe that you have sent me, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. And and so there's a reason for community.
Joel Brooks:Community is not just, you know, the end all be all. It's not a goal in itself. There is a it's a means to an end. And verse 23 essentially says the same thing there. That God wants us to be 1, to live in community, to, to live in complete unity in order to point in a direction so that the world would see when we claim Jesus and we are unified, they would say, well, how in the world can anybody be that unified?
Joel Brooks:Jesus must be more than just a man. Jesus must have come from God. And so, our community becomes the best evangelistic tool that we have. You can see this on display in, just the early just the people who were here in this room. Picture the people who were there in the upper room with Jesus.
Joel Brooks:You have the 12 there. Just picture how diverse they were. We'll we'll highlight 2. We'll look at 2. Look at Matthew and look at Judas, not Judas the betrayer, but, Judas the zealot.
Joel Brooks:Matthew was a tax collector. This is a Judas, was people he was part of the zealots. They were essentially a terrorist organization. They killed people who worked for the Roman Empire. That's what they did.
Joel Brooks:They had their little daggers, they would get in crowded places and they would, they would kill people who worked for the Roman Empire. And Judas was simply known as the Zealot. I mean, he was so into this, they just called him the Zealot. And so you have Matthew who worked for the Roman government as a tax collector. And then you have Judas, the terrorist, the zealot who killed people who worked for the Roman government.
Joel Brooks:And they're in this room. Jesus is saying, be 1. Because let me tell you what, if you are 1, it will testify to me. That's what Jesus is talking about. That's the type of community that points to him.
Joel Brooks:CS Lewis, this is a familiar quote. He said this about friendship and about, community. He said, Friendship is born the moment when one person says to another, what you 2? I thought I was the only one. So that's when friendship is born.
Joel Brooks:And so when we find out that we have a common passion with someone, common experience with someone, We're like, what? You 2? I thought I was the only one. There's this instant connection, this instant bond there. And that's how friendship is born.
Joel Brooks:And I feel that, I'll just have to say that Lauren and I've somewhat misled people in naming our 3rd child, Georgia, because people have mistaken our passion and they think it's about Georgia football. And they feel this instant connection with us. And, you know, we named Georgia, Georgia because Lauren and I are both from Georgia. All of our families are from Georgia, and we like it's a good Southern name. So we're like Georgia.
Joel Brooks:I mean, we love the name. But since we're in the Bible Belt, also known as the SEC, people just assume. Like we, we introduced Georgia and like, Oh, you must be a big Bulldog fan. Go Dogs. I'm like, Go Dogs.
Joel Brooks:What do you? No, we did not name our child after the Georgia bulldogs. And I was like, yes, I went to the University of Georgia, but I'm, I watched maybe 1 game a year and, and you can see, like, they're deflated. They're like, I thought we had something there. I thought we had this connection.
Joel Brooks:They were thinking we had this YouTube moment. We have got so many University of Georgia things given to us since Georgia was born. We have we have tumblers, coffee mugs, slippers, pajamas, plates, grilling utensils, just blankets. I've got hoodies, caps. We haven't bought any of them.
Joel Brooks:Okay? But since Georgia was born, people just give us those things because they think we share a common passion. They're, they're koinonia. They're sharing with us based on what they think is a common passion. Please, no Georgia stuff.
Joel Brooks:But it is Koineonia in a sense. It's just, what is the passion? What is the common experience that produces those things? You see it here in verse 11. When Jesus says I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I am coming to you Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be 1 even as we are 1.
Joel Brooks:Jesus prays that we would be kept in his name. There's your unifying element, the name of Jesus. This can unite a tax collector, it can unite a zealot. It can unite a, you know, a democrat or a republican or a liberal or conservative. Hipsters, me, you know, together.
Joel Brooks:It just what wherever you are, when you when you it's the name of Christ, you're united far more than anything else. And let me just tell you this. If you are having a hard time finding community, which is likely in a room this size that there are some who are just really having a hard time. It's likely because you're looking for the wrong what? You too?
Joel Brooks:I thought it was the only one. You're you're likely looking for some other common interest, some stage of life, in which it does take a very particular person and kind of meet up with. But if you're looking for somebody who has met the living Jesus and been redeemed by him, we're here. And if you share those things, how you have met him, you're going to find out, what? You too.
Joel Brooks:And there is a connection, there is a passion, and there is community. And we need to share those things. We see this, I'll end with this. And in acts 21, y'all turn there, flip over one book, acts 21. Acts 20 20, we we've looked at in the past is how Paul is saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders.
Joel Brooks:Right after that, he gets on a boat and he goes to the city of Tyre. Now he's never gone to Tyre. He's never preached the gospel there. He didn't found a church there. So, so he is a stranger when he arrives in Tyre.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 3. Says, when we had come inside of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre for the ship was to unload its cargo. And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for 7 days. And through the spirit, they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey and they all with wives and children accompanied us.
Joel Brooks:And so they were outside the city and kneeling down on the beach, we prayed and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship and they returned home. I love this. So when Paul arrives in this town as a stranger, first thing he does is, I've heard there might be disciples of Jesus here. I need to find them.
Joel Brooks:He's only there for a few days. He's like, I need to find the disciples of Jesus. And so he finds them, and there's this instant connection. Instantly. They're, they're family.
Joel Brooks:And it's, it's not based on stage of life because it says you have the men and the women and the children. You have the whole spectrum of people going there. It's not, it's not a common interest thing. You know, they're not in those few days talking about tent making or golf or something like that and building a community there. They're believers who've been changed by Jesus, and there's this instant connection, And they get on the beach and they pray together.
Joel Brooks:You want a picture of community? Picture that. Strangers becoming family, uniting on the beach, kneeling in prayer. That's what God's given us. That's the oneness.
Joel Brooks:This is something that we need to do more of in this church. We need to kneel together and pray before Jesus. We can, you know, as a staff, we talk about this all the time. We can, we can do some programs, set up some fellowship meals, some men's breakfast, some, you know, whatever fun nights and things like that. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Joel Brooks:But if that's how you were wanting to build community, that is not John 17. John 17 happens when you're in your home groups or when you're in somebody, you know, meeting them for lunch or whatever, and you tell them, let me tell you what Jesus is doing in my life. Let me tell you how Jesus has redeemed me and they're going to say, do you too? And there will be that connection in that passion. Community begins with that vulnerability and that transparency to tell people about your experience with the Lord.
Joel Brooks:And then there, you can experience that oneness that Christ prayed for, and we'll look at how this is fleshed out next week. One of the things I want us to do in just, just a few moments, if this is your first time to Redeemer Community Church, it's gonna get awkward. We're we're we're just we we're gonna break up into some groups here. We don't bite or anything like that. If you all get in groups of like just 10 or so, you can circle up your chairs.
Joel Brooks:And, before we close in song, we're just gonna do this for a few minutes. I want you guys to pray together. I want you to pray what you've heard from this passage. And, if the Lord puts a scripture, that you want to just share, this is who Christ is and this is what he has done, share it. Well, let's pray together and then we're gonna close in song in just a few minutes.
Joel Brooks:So, y'all take time right now. Go ahead and just kinda gather around.