Seventh Sunday of Easter

Seventh Sunday of Easter (C)

May 29, 2022

Text: John 17:20-26

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!

            Jesus prays for His Church.  Jesus prays for you.  In this morning’s Gospel, we hear our Lord’s High Priestly Prayer for us.  Priests pray for their people, and so Jesus prays for His Christians.  He prays for His Apostles.  And He prays for us who will believe in Him through their Word (John 17:20).  And what is it that He prays for us?  He prays that we would all be one, with the very unity that flows from the Persons in the Godhead.  And this not only for our sakes, but so that the world would believe that the Father sent Jesus (v. 21).  He prays that we would be enveloped within the unity of Father and Son (vv. 21-23), their love, their life.  And He prays that the result of all of this would be that we are with Him, with Jesus, where He is, that we may see His glory (v. 24).  That is, that we would be with Him in heaven, basking in His presence, worshiping before His throne, and that we would share with Him in the New Creation, now by faith, and then visibly when the risen Lord Jesus raises us from the dead.

            Jesus prays for the unity of His Christians.  But we know that sin brings disunity rather than unity.  This is the great scandal of denominations within Christendom.  Now, Satan would have us believe that it is insistence on pure doctrine that divides the Church.  There is a slogan peddled by purveyors of bumper-sticker theology and other teachers of false doctrine: “Doctrine divides, love unites.”  Even some among our own fellowship advance this thinking.  And it is seductive, because we all want to be loving, and the divisions in the Church rightly grieve us.  But think for a minute about what this means.  True doctrine is the teaching of God in the Bible.  The word doctrine simply means teaching.  So when you use a slogan like “doctrine divides, love unites,” you are actually saying that God’s teaching in the Bible divides, and Christians shouldn’t teach it, and, in fact, it is unloving for Christians to teach what God teaches in the Bible.  Well, no wonder the Church is such a mess! 

            This is demonic deception.  Don’t buy it for a minute, and if you’ve ever thought it or said it, repent.  Beloved, true doctrine doesn’t divide.  True doctrine unites.  False doctrine divides.  False doctrine is the reason there are so many denominations.  When Jesus prays that we would all be one, He is not praying that our unity would result from denying His Word.  That is absurd!  He is praying that we would be united precisely in His Word.  He prays this for His Apostles and “for those who will believe in me through their word” (v. 20; ESV; emphasis added), and that is the Apostolic Scriptures!  The loving thing to do is to call those who believe and teach things that contradict Jesus’ Word back to Jesus’ Word, back to true doctrine.  And, of course, it is a false teaching to assert that doctrine and love are mutually exclusive.  Not only is purity of doctrine loving, it is an article of pure doctrine that we should love one another in deed and in truth, as the Lord Himself bids us in the writing of His Apostle, St. John (1 John 3:18), and as the Lord Himself prays for us in this prayer.  In fact, He says that His Word, His doctrine, is what enables us to love one another with the very love of God: “I made known to them your name,” that is, I have revealed You, Father, to them, in preaching Your Word, “and I will continue to make it known,” with the result “that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26).

            Of course, it is true, division is also caused by the sin of lovelessness, and your pure doctrine does you no good (and, in fact, your doctrine is not pure) if you do not love your neighbor.  The Second Table of the Law, the Ten Commandments, is all about loving your neighbor as yourself.  That is, honoring father and mother and earthly authorities, not murdering, not committing adultery, not stealing, not slandering, not coveting, but rather promoting your neighbor’s life and welfare, treating his or her (and your) body and sexuality as sacred, helping your neighbor to improve and protect his possessions and income, promoting his reputation, and rejoicing in his prosperity.  Loving your neighbor is not feeling all warm and fuzzy about him, although that’s great.  It is acting toward Him as the Lord commands you.  When you don’t love your neighbor in this way (and you don’t, so, repent), this lovelessness divides you.  It has divided the one holy Christian and apostolic Church into denominations.  And this lovelessness especially rears its ugly head within Christian congregations.  So we must root it out, whenever it appears, with mutual confession and absolution, reconciliation with God and one another, under the pure and true teaching of Jesus Christ… His doctrine. 

            This is why the Father sent the Son.  Jesus is the Great Apostle.  That is the Greek word in our text, “that the world may believe that you have sent,” ἀπέστειλας, “me” (v. 21).  This is a reference to His earthly ministry, His suffering and death for our sins, and His resurrection from the dead.  That is, His redeeming and justifying work.  The Father sent Him, apostled Him, for this purpose.  To bring forgiveness for, and to save us from, all that divides us in doctrine and life, which is to say, our sin. 

            In our sin, we have believed and taught what is untrue, and this has divided us, not only from one another, but from the one true God.  So Jesus comes as Truth incarnate (“I am the way, and the truth, and the life” [John 14:6; emphasis added]), to impart Truth and bring us into the Truth that is Jesus Christ, to save us from the Liar and his lies, and restore us to God and to one another. 

            In our sin, we have not loved God with our whole hearts, and we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves, and this divides us from God and from one another.  So Jesus comes as Love incarnate (“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” [Rom. 5:8]), to impart divine Love and bring us into the Love that is Jesus Christ, to save us from the hateful Murderer and his murderings (to hate is to murder [1 John 3:15]), and restore us to the God of life and love, and seal our fellowship and life together with one another.  Jesus’ redeeming work has practical results here and now.  It brings us to repentance for the sin that divides us, and it unites us in the love and unity that flows from the loving Communion of the Holy Trinity, by means of His Word, His teaching, His doctrine.

            What does it look like to dwell together as those redeemed by Jesus Christ, who is Truth and Love incarnate… to live as one, as Jesus prays for us?  Let’s just think in terms of this congregation.  Well, it certainly means to speak truthfully and faithfully of our Lord and His Word.  That is, pure doctrine is love, and by it, God unites us.  And it means to correct one another when we speak untruthfully or unfaithfully about our Lord and His Word, or live in a way that contradicts it, even if it means correcting your pastor.  And sometimes it even means Church discipline, which is the loving thing to do, just as love for your children requires you to discipline them.  It means that we speak as one.  That we confess as one.  So that the world may believe that the Father sent the Son.  It means that we are one Body (the Body of Christ), in one Spirit, united in one hope (that we may be with Jesus where He is, and live with Him eternally), “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:4-6).  Practically speaking, it means coming to Church, where our communion is put into action in Word and prayer and Supper (“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” [Acts 2:42])..  It means supporting the Gospel with our offerings and our prayers.  It means praying for one another (and I encourage you to pray for one another intentionally, habitually, and by name, as I pray for you).  It means giving of ourselves and our possessions when one of us has a need.  It means forgiving one another, as God has forgiven us.  It means rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep, getting together for mutual conversation and consolation, covering our neighbor’s weaknesses and sins, speaking… and thinking!... well of one another, being kind to one another, living peaceably with one another, not griping and backbiting, not insisting on our own way, but deferring in humility to one another, outdoing one another in showing honor.  And the like.  It means repenting where we fail, confessing to God and to our neighbor.  And it means living joyfully and confidently in the forgiveness of sins that we have in Jesus, in His Truth, and in His Love.

            This unity is manifested here and now in a very particular way.  Here, as we are gathered together in the very presence of Jesus Christ, our crucified and risen Lord, the Father has already brought us to be with our Savior where He is.  He has already answered the prayer!  And Jesus here gives us the glory that the Father has given to Him, the glory of being named sons of God, and this is what unifies us.  St. Paul says that when we behold the glory of the Lord Jesus, as we do in His Word, we “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).  That is (and think about this!), the Holy Spirit is doing something miraculous as you sit here in the presence of Jesus, hearing His Truth and receiving His Love.  He is restoring you to the image of God, the image that was lost in the fall.  All that has marred God’s image in you, your false beliefs, your sins of lovelessness, He is taking away.  And one degree after another, He is fashioning you into the very image of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is what we call sanctification, and this too, is the gift of God by grace.  It is a hidden reality in this life, at the same time saint and sinner that you are, but there it is.  So Jesus’ prayer is answered.  We are united in Him.  We are one in Him.  And this is expressed by the Church’s “Amen” to the preaching of His Doctrine.  And by our coming together here in love and union, to eat and drink His true body and blood, thus proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes. 

            Doctrine and Love unite, for it is the Lord who gives them for this very purpose.  And here is an article of doctrine, the confession of which defines what it means to be a Christian… United in Christ, let us speak it once again: Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.