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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 all would, open your bibles to John chapter 17. Or if you want, it's in your bulletin or your worship guide. John 17. Normally, for our last Sunday of each month, we have been doing a different Psalm. But we're gonna take a little break from that.
Joel Brooks:We're gonna do our Psalm next week, so that we can look at part 2 of community, which we began last week. I will be reading from the same text that we did last week. John 17. Beginning in verse 20. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word.
Joel Brooks: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 given to them. That they may be 1, even as we are 1.
Joel Brooks:I and 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 loved me. Because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Lord, the words we just read are so packed. I feel like every little sentence you, we, we could land at for, for hours, and not come close to plunging their death. So God, in preaching a message on this, I, I realize it's not so much on on what I say. It's really your spirit needs to open up our hearts and our minds to receive the things that we've just heard. To plant them deep within us.
Joel Brooks:Lord, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away, and nobody would remember them. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. There's a cadence, that you hear when you read the first chapter of Genesis.
Joel Brooks:1st couple chapters. Over and over again, god creates something and then you have this refrain and god saw that it was good and you get this over and over through every day of creation. So, so god creates land and he says, he saw that it was good. He, he creates animals and says, and he saw that they were good. It was good.
Joel Brooks:And this goes over and over, and then this abruptly changes. And it's kinda shocking when you've when you've been lulled into hearing the same thing over and over. But then he gets a man, and god creates man, Adam, and he puts him in a garden and gosh, he's got good fulfilling work. He's got great things to eat. Great climate.
Joel Brooks:He's got a perfect relationship with God. And yet it's here that this cadence is broken. You don't hear that refrain. You got used to hearing it as god saw it and it was good. God says, it is not good that man should be alone.
Joel Brooks:And when you read that, I mean, it's so abrupt, and you're tempted to think, okay, I guess God made a mistake. Is he did he make a mistake and now he's going to correct the mistake here. And that's not what's happening. God created Adam all by himself because he wanted Adam to feel something. He wanted his heart to have this aching and this longing for something, for companionship.
Joel Brooks:He, he wanted Adam to, to desire to not to be alone. And so actually, Adam's longing for friendship, his longing for companionship is not a sign of weakness or not a sign of imperfection. It's actually a sign of perfection to have that longing. And so if there's times in your life that you think, gosh, I just can't do this on my own. Or, I'm just so lonely.
Joel Brooks:That is not a sign of you being imperfect. That's not a sign of you somehow being less than human. That's actually a sign of your perfection. That is how God made you, was to need others. And if there happen to be any super spiritual people out here who think you really don't need friends because all you need is you and God.
Joel Brooks:That's it. Just God and me, and I really don't need anybody else. Let me remind you that Adam also had a perfect relationship with God, and it wasn't enough. God said it wasn't enough. I mean, Adam walked with God in the cool of the evening, and yet God created him to need actually a human companion.
Joel Brooks:Numerous scholars have pointed this out. They they said, God is the most unselfish being there is because He actually created people to need more than just Him. People were created to be a part of community. So if you're here today and you find yourself longing for deep relationships, and I hope you are, that's not a sign of your weakness. That is a sign of you're exactly how god has made you.
Joel Brooks:You need those friendships. You need to be in a community. No one displayed this more than our Lord Jesus Christ, The need for community. Yes, he was perfect. Yes, he had a perfect relationship with his father.
Joel Brooks:But a sign of Jesus being perfect was that he needed friends while he was here on this earth. That was a sign of his perfection. And you see this throughout Jesus's whole life. When when Jesus was walking around, he he he would have, at times, thousands of people following him. But you can't be friends with a 1,000 people, unless actually right before, and I checked Jesus's Facebook status.
Joel Brooks:He had 12,700,000 friends. And so Facebook friends maybe, but real friends, you can't have 1,000 of them. And and so Jesus, he takes the 1,000, and he the first group he forms is 70. And and he gets the 70 to help him with his mission. But you can't really get to know 70 people well.
Joel Brooks:And so out of the 70, he, he has 12, 12 disciples that he will really get to know there is going to form his tight community. But really, you can't even get to know 12 people really well, so He picks 3. He picks Peter, James, and John. And these are his companions who, who get to see like the Mount of Transfiguration. He only takes them up there.
Joel Brooks:These are his closest friends, but even among these 3, you have one. You have John, who 5 times in scripture is simply called the one whom Jesus loved. This is the one whom Jesus asked to take care of his mother when he was dying on the cross. And so, you even have Jesus's best friend, if you will, right there. Jesus needed friends.
Joel Brooks:He needed that community. He was made for this. It's a sign of his perfection. And Jesus shows us what community should look like. He shows us what friendships should look like.
Joel Brooks:Let's just look at a few characteristics of friendship that are modeled in Jesus' life. We're not going to look out at all of them, just a few. One that typically people don't think about is that Jesus shared his temptations with his friends. Jesus shared his temptations with his friends. If you remember, you'll find this in Matthew 4.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus launched his public ministry shortly afterwards, it says that the Spirit led him out into the desert, where he fasted for 40 days and he was tempted by the devil for 40 days. And he had 3 main temptations and he overcame them with scripture. I've heard plenty of sermons on this, and, most sermons, I think rightly so, focus on the, the way Jesus battled these temptations. He battled them with scripture and, and what this says about Jesus. But one of the things that I think everybody misses is something that is implied in the story.
Joel Brooks:And that's that Jesus had to tell this story to someone. There was nobody there. It was just Jesus being tempted by the devil for 40 days. But what happens is the first thing that happens when Jesus gets back is he has to gather his disciples around and he has to tell them, hey, let me tell you how I was tempted. Let me tell you about this.
Joel Brooks:And so Jesus is in a sense, sharing His struggles, sharing his temptations with his close community. And so you learn so much about the nature of friendship here, that even Jesus would share what he's being tempted by. I I was so thankful, Jordan, when you shared a few weeks ago, when you opened up and you you shared specific sins that you were struggling with. Because that's Christ like. Not that he had to ever confess sin, but he shared his temptations.
Joel Brooks:2nd kind of characteristic we see that Jesus models about friendship is that Jesus, he was often praying with his friends. There's so many different prayers we can point to. Jesus often prayed alone, but, more often he's, he's praying with his friends. And let me just highlight 2 of these, partially because they're unusual and I, I like, I'm just drawn to unusual prayers. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, it's probably the most unusual prayer we have in all of the Bible.
Joel Brooks:Lazarus was his friend. Lazarus's family were were friends of his, and he goes there and Lazarus has been dead for 3 days, and He tells them to remove the stone. And everybody's like, Uh-uh, we're not moving the stone. It's gonna stink. And He says, No, remove it.
Joel Brooks:And so, they remove the stone and he prays this prayer in John 11. Praise this out loud. He goes, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I say this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe you've sent me. Amen.
Joel Brooks:Amen. Amen. So the prayer is essentially this, god, I know you've heard me and I know you hear me now, but I'm just praying so these people can hear me praying to you. That's it. And what's happening is is before Jesus ever approaches this tomb, he's praying privately.
Joel Brooks:He's he's praying, God, raise Lazarus from the dead. God, preserve his body. And then when hit, they move the stone away and he doesn't smell decay. There's no decay. He says, I thank you that you've heard me.
Joel Brooks:And I know that you always hear me. And I'm saying this out loud so they will know this. And so, he's inviting people into his intimate relationship with God. He's saying, yes, I pray privately, but there's some things I want you to know about, and I'm inviting you into these prayers. And that's what Jesus would do with his friends.
Joel Brooks:He would go off and he would pray by himself, and God would work, and then he'd come back and he would pray with his friends so they could see his heart, so that they could get insight into God. And so he invited them in by praying out loud. Another prayer of Jesus, in which He prays with friends is in the garden. Just before Jesus is going to be crucified, He gathers His friends. He gathers his friends and he says, just stay and watch with me.
Joel Brooks:It says, Mark 14 says, and they went to a place called Gethsemane and and said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, my soul's very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch. And here, we see Jesus in his deepest moment of distress, and I love this because it's so human.
Joel Brooks:He just doesn't want to be alone. That's it. This is his greatest trial. This is his greatest moment of distress. He's like, I don't want to be outside of community when I go through this.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't ask his disciples to pray. He just says, will you just sit here and be with me while I pray? I just need your company. Let me tell you what the times in my life where I've had the deepest, I think, spiritual growth have not come from me listening to a message. And as a pastor, I can't believe I'm saying this because I know this is the defining moment of your life happening right now.
Joel Brooks:But, but it hasn't. It's been when I've heard the message and I've prayed through it with friends. And those moments have changed me. I, I can still remember when I was in college and I my college roommates and I had 2 other roommates, and we had heard a message. It wasn't that great, but we had gone back to our apartment and we started talking about it.
Joel Brooks:We decided we would pray about it, and we just began to pray together. To this day, that that has profoundly changed my life. Unexpected, unplanned, just simply praying with friends. And the spirit of God was so thick, we were on our knees and I promise you could not get up. God meeting us here in that moment.
Joel Brooks:That's what friendship does. We encourage one another in prayer, and I got to hear their hearts to God, and it drew me in as well. And we need to do this with one another. So we've seen Jesus share his temptations, his struggles. We've seen Jesus pray with his friends.
Joel Brooks:We could talk about the other times that he's building community just through the endless meals he would have with them. He's always breaking bread with them. And if you wanna just do an interesting study, just notice what happens almost every time Jesus breaks bread. It's usually pretty astounding because meals were teaching teaching powerful moments, but he's always breaking bread with his friends. He's always encouraging his friends and their faith, But I want us to just look at one more characteristic of friendship in Jesus's life, and that's the cross.
Joel Brooks:We've got to go to the cross. And when Jesus was on the cross, you have to picture the same. There's there's onlookers everywhere and some are hurling abuse at him. Some are weeping and crying, but in the midst of all this, he looks down and he sees his mother. And Jesus is the oldest son, which means he's responsible for her.
Joel Brooks:But, he's got no way of taking care of her. He he's about to leave. He doesn't have any money he can she's gonna get nothing when he's gone. There's no possessions. And Jesus looks at her and, you know, he says, says, John, this is your mother, Behold your son, mom, and he unites them together.
Joel Brooks:And what you see here is astounding. It's astounding because Jesus should have asked blood to do this. It should have been his younger brother. That's the person who's legally responsible for his mom. Right there.
Joel Brooks:And and, he doesn't say, Hey brother, it's going to be up to you now. He says, No, at this moment, right here, spiritual brotherhood. My spiritual family supersedes any physical family I have. This community that I am forming here is far greater than blood. John, you're to take care of my mother.
Joel Brooks:I mean, this is huge. I, if you were to just look at the person at your right or left, go ahead and do it right now. Look at the person right or left. Imagine them going to you and saying, hey, I want you to take care of my mother from now on. She's going to move into your house, and I just want you to take care of other, okay?
Joel Brooks:You're like, please no. Please no. I mean, if your neighbor calls you up and says, Hey, can you take care of my pet for the next week we're going on vacation? You're always like, Oh my gosh. This is Jesus's mother to take care of for the rest of her life.
Joel Brooks:This is this isn't a small task. This is huge Financial commitments, space commitments, emotional commitments, and he doesn't turn to blood. He turns to the community that he has established. Says, this is what I'm at. This is the family.
Joel Brooks:John, this is your mother. Jesus teaches about this kind of family relationship in another familiar story. Turn turn to it if you will, Mark chapter 10. Go to Mark chapter 10. Familiar story of the rich young ruler, which you're probably thinking, what the heck does that have to do with community or being 1?
Joel Brooks:Well, a whole lot, actually. Mark 10, we'll begin reading in verse 17. And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good, except God alone.
Joel Brooks:You know, the commandments do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother. And he said to him, teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth. And Jesus looking at him loved him and said to him, you lack one thing. Go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus said to them again, children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him, then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, with man, it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.
Joel Brooks:And Peter began to say to Him, see, we have left everything and followed you. And Jesus said, truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a 100 fold now, in this time. Houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions. And in the age to come, eternal life. Lord, teach us, teach us this.
Joel Brooks:There's a lot of ways you can unpack this text, and I want us to look at it through the lens though tonight of community and what Christ is establishing. The rich young ruler is just like Adam in the garden Here. I want you to think of them very similarly. Like Adam in the garden, he's he's just like Adam. He's young, he's rich, he's a ruler.
Joel Brooks:That's exactly what Adam was. Young, the whole world was his, and he ruled it. He was given dominion. And also like Adam, this this young ruler here is a good person. He says, I'm I'm doing really well.
Joel Brooks:I'm I'm keeping all these laws And Jesus looks at his state. And here it says he has compassion on him somewhat similar to to looking at Adam and saying it's not good that he should be alone. Basically, he's saying something has got to change here. And he invites them to Koinonia. Do you remember what the, the word we looked at last week?
Joel Brooks:Koinonia. It's, it's translated community fellowship and at its root, it simply means to share. In which you share your feelings, you share your faith, you share your possessions, you share all of your life. That's what Koinonia is. And here Jesus is inviting the rich young ruler to Koinonia to share.
Joel Brooks:He's saying, Yeah, you have to do these things. You have to share your possessions to be a part of this community that is following me. And this man thinks about it and he can't do it. He can't. And then Peter, I love it.
Joel Brooks:It's always Peter. But Lord, look, we've left everything and we followed you. Like he, like it's a boast. Look at us, we're so much better. And and Jesus, I wish we knew his reaction.
Joel Brooks:I kinda picture a half smirk and almost sarcastic him saying, really? Look at all that you've gained in this life, Peter. And he goes on, he says, you've gained an entire new family, and he names all the family. You've gained all these all these land. You've gained everything in this life, not in the life to come, but now you are part of a new community that far surpasses what you gave up.
Joel Brooks:You've gained Koinonia, true Christian fellowship. And what Jesus is talking about here is the oneness that he's later going to pray in John 17, that oneness that we looked at last week. When he prays that we would be 1, he's praying that in Christ, we would become one another's family. In Christ, we would share all things with one another. But let me tell you something, This type of oneness and this type of community comes at a cost.
Joel Brooks:It comes at a cost. If, you know, Jesus when he said, May they be 1. If he just meant, Father, may once a week, my people gather around for an hour and a half, and sing a few songs, and then go home and live their lives. If if that was his prayer in John 17, and that's what he meant by oneness, I guarantee the rich young ruler would have said, done. Done.
Joel Brooks:Sign me up for that. I can do that. But that is not at all what Jesus is praying for the church. Is that one meeting time that they could gather together, that's oneness. Not at all.
Joel Brooks:It's It's gonna be more costly. Being being part of a community of God, means you're not to take time to pray together, to eat together, to hear the word of God together, to share your struggles together. Means you're going to have to take time to help each other as we are in need. The currency of the day, when we read through the rich young ruler, his currency was money. I don't think that applies so much anymore today.
Joel Brooks:Our currency is time. Time. Far more than money. Our, the oneness that god is calling us to means that we're gonna have to sacrificially give up time in order to have that type of community. And listen, I'm a husband, I'm a father of 3 little girls, and so, I get the craziness in life.
Joel Brooks:I do. I understand that, you know, modern American culture is very fast paced and frenzied. I can feel that, you know, you, you, you don't just give your child a ballet lesson, one of them, and then rush over to a soccer practice, you know, and then go over to a piano lesson, or something like it's, it's well you you need to do the best for your child, therefore you got to get tutors for them. You got to make sure they they could get the best possible of of every type of training, which takes up a ton of time. You you feel that.
Joel Brooks:That push in American culture. I feel it. And which it can be hard actually to eat together as a family. Without just shoveling it in before you go off to the next task. And let me tell you what, if you can't maintain a community at home with your family, what makes you think you're going to be able to maintain a community as part of the family of God or the church?
Joel Brooks:You can't. Time is the currency. Time is what we have to sacrifice. And what I have to recognize, when I hear Jesus' demands on that rich young ruler, what I have to say to myself is, Hey, if there is any thing in my life that is detrimental to building community, I've got to let it go. If this means limiting my kids' extracurricular activities, I limit it.
Joel Brooks:This means I see less shows, less movies, less Netflix, whatever, I do it. If it means I limit the amount of time I, I stare at a computer or a phone. I do it. I've got to take away the time killers. I've gotten to slow down my life.
Joel Brooks:You know, Lauren and I have, those of you been over in our house, we have written over our kitchen sink, a phrase called, odium sanctum. It means holy leisure. A lot of people ask me about, that's our, the name of our women's group too. And they say, when is odium sanctum? That's, that's a bad smell leisure.
Joel Brooks:It's, it's Otium, holy leisure. And it's a term used by the church fathers. And it says just how you can pace all of life to where life can be worship Because it can't be worship if if it's always a frenzy pace. Things have to slow down, which means you have to sacrifice time. It is a sacrifice.
Joel Brooks:What Jesus was asking the rich young ruler was a big sacrifice. With so many demands on our time, we very well might ask when Jesus prays that we would be 1, yet we're living in America in this fast paced lifestyle, we'd probably say the same things as the disciples. Gosh, it seems impossible that anybody could be 1. Jesus is like, You're right. It's, it's hard.
Joel Brooks:It's impossible apart from God. God has to ignite in each of us that desire to be in a community like that. So we could count the cost and lay it down. But listen to me, and I hope you get this. Being part of a community will cost us, but it will not cost us anything close to what it costs Christ to give us that community.
Joel Brooks:We like to think of all the little sacrifices or the big sacrifices we're making, that is nothing compared to what Christ went through to give us this gift of having a family. All of Jesus's friends, all of his community left him. When the soldiers came, his community fled and ran. At, at the cross, Jesus didn't have community. He was forsaken by his friends, and so he turns to his father and he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Joel Brooks:All community stripped away So that we might have that gift that we take so lightly. My prayer is that we would not take it lightly, but that we would sacrifice to become what Christ has prayed for us to become. Pray with me. Lord Jesus. I realize as I, as I started this message and prayed, no words will be enough here to communicate this.
Joel Brooks:Your spirit needs to communicate this to our hearts and to our spirit. And so I ask that you would do so in this moment. I pray that we would see the greatness of what you have called us to be a part of. And also just how great it can be in showing the world who you are. You pray that we might be 1, so that so that the world may see that you have come from your father.
Joel Brooks:And may our oneness point to that. We pray this in the name of Jesus and for his glory. Amen.