United, Not Divided
John 17:20-23; 1 Cor. 11:17-22, 27-33
The other day I was taking out
the trash and it was the last bag that Melissa had given me, including some a
spoiled egg. I thought to myself, the last one in is a rotten egg.
It reminded me of overhearing my
grandsons talking to each other about one being a rotten egg.
At the Lord’s Supper, there is a
past tense, where we remember what Christ did for us;
There is a future tense when we
desire to share communion again with the Lord and proclaim his death until he
comes
And there is a present tense, in
which we seek to live for Christ and keep communion with each other.
What Christ prayed for us, He
prayed for Himself, His disciples, and for those who would believe in the
future.
There are seven key requests
Jesus made to the Father in His High Priestly prayer. The sixth request is the
first of two which Jesus requested for
all disciples of all time.
If you were to outline the prayer
of Jesus in John 17, you could have a THREE part summary of
Jesus praying for Himself, FIVE
VERSES;
Jesus praying for His disciples
and the early believers, FOURTEEN VERSES;
And Jesus praying for future
believers, SEVEN VERSES.
But another outline would be the
seven prayer requests Jesus gave to the Father.
When I was in Killeen, our pastor
of over 2,000 people at least on the role would lead in prayer meeting and I
would tell people if you really wanted to know the heart of your pastor, come
pray with him.
I would say that still is true.
Come pray with us on Wednesday nights. But what about Jesus. How can we get to
know him? By His prayer requests.
1. In John17,
Jesus had SEVEN prayer requests (John 17:1–24)
One request was for Himself (17:1-5)
FOUR requests were for the disciples
and early believers (17:11, 13, 15, 17)
TWO requests for those “who will
believe” (17:20-24)
When He prayed for Himself, He
really only had one Request, that the father would glorify the Son.
When He prayed for the Disciples
and early believers, He prayed for Unity (11), For Joy (13), for Protection (15), and for their
Sanctification (17);
When He prayed for future
believers, he prayed for Unity (20-23), and that we would all be able to join
him in glory where we will be able to see his glory (24).
Did you notices that Two out of
the 7 prayer requests were for unity.
2. Two of the seven requests dealt with UNITY(John
17:11, 20-23)
Two Major Passages on Keeping
Unity:
Matt.
5:23-26
Matt.
18:15-17
The first writing of the Lord’s
Supper was not in the Gospels but in first Cor. 11. We read that passage at the
beginning, but some in Corinth were truly being divisive. They would come to
the church to drink wine in excess to the point where they were drunk and
others would come and eat all of the food, to the exclusion of others going
away hungry.
3. Communion reminds us to come in purity, forgiveness,
love, and unity.
1 Cor.
11:17-22
