Life Lessons From John 17

In 1996, shortly after the beginning of the United Church of God, the Council of Elders held a meeting, one of their regular meetings, in Birmingham, Alabama. And at that time, the church was still coming together and a number of organizational issues were still being worked out. And after a number of years of the former organization within the Worldwide Church of God, the beginning of a new organization, there's always birth pains and starting things up as there were at that time. The Council went through a discussion at that time, and they made a statement.

They kind of came out with a statement that talked about the relationships within the church among members, among the ministry, the ministry to the members, members to the ministry, and a statement on relationships within the church.

And the conclusion—and I'll just sum up the statement that they made—they recognized various hurts, various mistakes, and handling mishandling of various people and situations throughout the years. And they made the statement that we have not always treated one another in a godly manner. That tends to be the operative phrase that came out of that statement that we very often will go back and refer to. Even earlier this year in a minister's meeting, I made that statement and referred to the statement of the Council at that meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. And in my own way, I've kind of given it a term called the Birmingham Mandate—the Birmingham Mandate, I call it.

And that is that we have not always treated each other in the church in a godly manner. Now, that's not a statement that is just to single us out in the United Church of God or the wider Church of God culture. That could be said about any church. That could be said about any business, any organization of any size, I'm sure. It could be said of just about any good-sized family. When you stop and think about the family relations of generations of people, I think any sizable group of people, where there's more than two or three gathered, you would probably be able to say, people haven't always treated each other in a godly manner.

So I don't say it to belittle the United Church of God or the Church of God in any way and to make us look bad, because I think it could be said of just about any group of people. But if you're going to call yourself the Church of God, you want to treat people in a godly manner. It doesn't excuse anything.

And the Council made that statement. Now, after that, we've had mistakes made in the way people have been treated and we've had our ups and downs even in the United Church of God. Things are said here or there that aren't always right. And that's just part of life. That's part of people getting along, going along, and messing up in all those different ways in terms of how events take place. But I thought about it a great deal. In recent months, especially, with some of the issues of relocation and that before the Church and things said and handling of it and two votes by the General Conference of Elders on that particular issue and matters that get dredged up when you get into things that are like that, that are always emotional.

You know, they say that within churches that the one thing that people, the churches divide over as much as anything else is the building of buildings. And that's true of whatever the domination. And we haven't divided and don't anticipate that we're going to divide over this issue, but it has brought out differences.

And it's been on my mind, as I have said, and it's forced me to think a little bit deeper about that particular mandate, the Birmingham mandate, that we've not always treated each other in a godly manner to try to find a solution. And having been placed on the Council of Elders, the senior leadership body within the church, the responsibility I feel now is something that I have to think about more and work for within that body as part of one of the twelve members that make up the Council of Elders. And to do what I can to, I think, bring that statement to a point where we can say at some point we have begun to treat each other in a more godly manner.

And in doing so, I've searched the scriptures and thought about things that, where do you begin? And there's many different scriptures. You know, Christ said in John 13 that, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love, one for another. Many other scriptures that talk about love and relationships and unity of the body and this and that. This morning I want to go through a section that I've kind of focused on to be kind of a baseline or a foundational section of scripture to talk about this.

Because I think that it strikes at the real need for us to learn to love one another and gives us a means to focus on loving God and loving the world and developing it in a way that enables us to accomplish the real mission of the church while at the same time focusing upon some very deep spiritual truths that are at the core of accomplishing better relationships, love for one another.

And so I'd like to take us through a section this morning of the scripture that is very familiar to us because every year we read through it. It is the 17th chapter of the book of John. Every year on the Passover service we read through John 17. It's always the last part of the Passover service that we read after we take the bread and the wine, the foot washing.

And maybe at that particular point in the service we are a little bit tired or we're a little bit anxious to move on and we do have to read. We're just skimming through those sections of John at that point in the service to recall the words Jesus spoke to his disciples prior to his crucifixion. But I'd like to take a bit more time to go through it this morning because in John 17 I think there is a great deal for us to consider in terms of loving each other, loving God, and loving the world in the right way to accomplish the mission that Christ gave to the church to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God to the world.

In John 17, what we have recorded here at the end of this Passover service where he changed the symbols and before his arrest, we have what amounts to a prayer, 26 verses in John 17 that amounts to a prayer. When I was a child in the church, a teenager, I remember a sermon being given one time by a pastor that I had, and he referred to this as the Lord's Prayer, the true Lord's Prayer.

You know, the other Lord's Prayer is back in the early the Sermon on the Mount where they asked Christ to teach them how to pray, and you have a very short prayer there, and that's a prayer too, but there are really several prayers of Jesus in the Bible, and whether or not you want to call this one the Lord's Prayer, the real Lord's Prayer is neither here nor there, but it is a prayer as he lifted up his eyes, it says in verse 1, to heaven. And so he had been addressing his disciples, and there around the table he changed, and instead of talking to them, he now started talking to the Father, and he lifted up his eyes, which is a sign of prayer. Many times in the Scriptures when Jesus or other people lift up their eyes, it is a sign of prayer, it is a part of a prayer to heaven, to God Himself, and this is a unique prayer. It was not his final prayer because he prayed while he was in the garden, and he prayed so hard that it says that he sweat and sweat blood there in the garden before his arrest, but it was a concluding prayer with his disciples there, and it is a lengthy prayer. We really have a lot here to discuss.

It's recorded, it seems, in its entirety. It was a prayer for himself, it was a prayer for his disciples, and it was a prayer for those who were to come from the world that would be called into the church. So there's really three dimensions to this prayer, three aspects to the prayer. A prayer for himself, and a prayer for his disciples, and a prayer for the world. So we'll break it down into that approach, but they all fit together.

And I think that they all fit together in a way to help us understand how it is that we are to relate to God to one another and to the world from a perspective of godly love, where we hang together, work together, and live together in a unity that goes beyond anything that perhaps we've ever thought about in terms of what constitutes true unity.

So let's look at this, and let's go through it, and we'll talk about it here. It's a prayer of outgoing concern. It's a prayer of love, and it is at the heart and the central message of the gospel of the kingdom. It's about eternal life, and it's about Christ showing the love that he and the Father have, and the love that brings them to the point of sharing their life with mankind. And it's very important for us in carrying on the work that we have been given to do. Here in verse 1, he says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that your son may also glorify you. So here's a prayer for himself. He's addressing the Father, and he's asking that God would glorify him with that love that he had, that he may in turn glorify the Father. Christ came in the flesh and died so that we could live as resurrected beings in the glory of the family of God. The glory of God is really the sovereign power of God and his compassion for all mankind. God wants to share his glory with all. In Hebrews 2, we read that the essential purpose of man's life is to be brought to or become one of the sons of glory, be glorified, because it talks about bringing many sons to glory in Hebrews 2. And that glory, when we kind of try to get a handle around the concept of glory, is more than a brilliant light that shines. It's more than just a kind of an image.

The glory of God is the full sovereignty and power of God that Jesus had. He left it when he became a human. But it is what he and the Father desire to share with all mankind. And that's why he says, glorify your son, that your son may glorify you and bring honor and share that glory with others. In verse 2, he says, as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And eternal life really is this glory of God within the family of God. It's living in the family of living forever. It is more than just, in a sense, living for an eternity. It really speaks to a way of life. But he said, you've given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. Now, eternal life is something that's a phrase from this part of the Bible. It's obviously the goal that we all have.

It's why we do what we do. We want to live forever. Remember the rich young ruler came to Jesus and said, what good thing must I do to have eternal life? We want to live forever, whatever that means. I don't know how many of you have ever stopped to try to wrap your mind around the concept of eternity and what it means to live forever. I don't know if you've ever sat down for a minute or five minutes and tried to figure out what does it mean to live for eternity? We know what it means to live for a day, a month, 60 years or 80 years. We can kind of wrap our mind around that. We can talk about how quickly time flies and the generations come and go. A year goes by, we're looking forward to the Feast of Tabernacles and we begin to think, wow, where's the last 12 months gone? We can think about time in terms of a month and a year and things like that, but thinking about eternity as to what it is and living forever. I remember one time as a kid trying to figure it out or just kind of let my mind dwell on it for a moment. And I remember it kind of got me to a point where I was just kind of, it was so unknown that it kind of scared me. And I just stopped thinking about eternity because I couldn't wrap my head around it completely. I will confess I couldn't because I kept thinking about doing the same thing over and over again, kind of like Groundhog Day. Getting up, going to school, going to work, every day, day in and day out, forever, no end, doing that, whatever your life is.

But that's not eternity. That's not eternity. And that's maybe why I got scared as a kid thinking about that because you just, I don't want to do that. Eternal life and life that Jesus is talking about here speaks to something that, yes, it's what happens when we will be a spirit being, the family of God, but it actually is also telling us something about the quality of our life and our relationships now. Because he goes on here in verse 3 and he said, this is eternal life. So he's going to give a definition that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So here in verse 3 is a definition, this is eternal life. And is it that you forever and ever, never and ever and ever roll without end? Is that what he says? No, he talks about a relationship. He talks about knowing the Father, the only true God, and knowing Jesus Christ whom you have sent. And what he's doing here is defining a relationship. Life, the quality of life that the Father and Christ live, is a quality of life defined by terms that we can pull from the scriptures of respect, of love, of consideration, of giving, of sharing. The fruits of the Holy Spirit would be a way to define and to break down the type of life that God and Christ have. And that is what he says that he wants to share with us and is important that we have. And as we live that way of life, as we come to know it, it becomes an active involvement with the spiritual dimension of God's presence and existence. And a reality of that today in our lives, that we believe that and we know that and begins as God gives us His Holy Spirit at baptism and we become children of His, begotten with that Holy Spirit. But it begins a life.

And it's not a life that we have to wait for at the change of the resurrection. We will have a spirit body and what 1 Corinthians 15 describes to us, we will put on immortality at that time. But the other scriptures, and this one in particular, point to the fact that we're to be living that type of life that we aspire to today. This is eternal life that we know God, that we know who He is and what He's doing. And the only true God, not a false God, not a false concept of God, not the idea of a God that was an angry God or a God who let things get out of control and a less inferior God created the physical world with all of its pain and suffering, which is the essence of Gnostic thought, Gnostic Christianity that developed after the time of Christ and the disciples, of a God who just lost control of it all. And an inferior God created the world that we see, and that's why we have pain and suffering. That's not the God we worship, nor do we worship a God that is layered with tradition and ideas about worship that are not rooted and grounded in the Bible. He says that we know the true God and Christ whom you have sent and how they live. And that is the life that he came to model, and he left as an example as a way of life for his disciples. So his mind is on that at this particular point in time.

And that's how one begins to understand God and draw close to God and, if you will, love God. It's an understanding based on truth, it's an understanding based on practice and a desire to know and to live like and to please and to glorify the Father. In verse 4 he says, I have glorified you on the earth, I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was. And so again here, a reference to the glory that Christ had before the world was in his pre-fleshly state before he was born of Mary. He said, glorify me with that glory which I had before. The one great job Christ had was to die for the sins of the world. And that was all but done at this point in the story. And he was resolved to go through it and to endure the suffering of death for mankind. And in his mind, he was ready to do that. I wonder if at this final meal with his disciples, 11 of them – Judas had left the room at this point – I wonder if this final meal kind of firmed up Christ's resolve to go through with his job. The friendship, the camaraderie, the men in the room and the company that these people that he had been with for this period of time for three years or more, I wonder how much that meant to what he was about to go through as he was going to go out and be arrested, tried, beaten, and scourged, and then die. You know, friendship, support from people, from friends that know you is very important to us all when we have to deal with a time of crisis in our life. When you're in the emergency room or in the waiting room at the hospital or someone is being operated on near and dear to you and someone is there with you as you go through it, it helps you go through it. It doesn't take away the problem. It doesn't help the surgeon. But it helps to have support and a phone call, a note, and a visit. Those are things that encourage us when we're at a point where we need to be encouraged and those relationships. And I wonder if Jesus felt that same way toward these men and if they were strengthening and encouraging him at this point as he refers, begins to refer to them and what he's going through. This part of the prayer really shows Christ's love for the Father. And that's where love begins toward God through submission to His power, His authority, His sovereignty in our life, and our recognition that there is some power beyond ourselves that we owe obedience to. And we are not an authority unto ourselves. And it results in a very deep desire to please God and to serve Him in all aspects of our life, just as a child who wants to please its parent and to gain honor and respect and affirmation from a parent. You know, I was reading an article this week about a famous personality. And you would not think, if I told you this person's name, it's someone that you would know, but you would not know that he has dealt with needing the love of his father. And when I read it and I realized it and I thought, hmm, that's interesting. You know, no matter how successful we can be in our life, the things of our childhood and our relationships with our parents are some of the most formative issues of our life. And a child wants to be loved, wants to be affirmed and receive that care from a parent. And if it's not given, if it's not there, as a child seeks to please its father or mother, that can shape the course of our life in many ways, in many, many ways. It's uncanny how that stays with us throughout our life.

Jesus here is basically showing how he wanted and related to the father, wanted to please the father. And it's this first step in how we develop in this love as we seek to love God and show him our love for him. And to know that in return we have that love.

This is what he's talking about here. This love toward God is also an acknowledgement that God is king. He is supreme. And we study the word of God, the Bible, and it becomes our guide in our life. It becomes our ultimate book on any topic that we might want.

And until we can come to that point where we truly love His word and all that is within it, and this book becomes the ultimate book in our life, then we again need to do something that that's something we have to develop and come to. This is the ultimate book on any particular topic that we might want. Not that we wouldn't have other books, and do have other books that we read for enjoyment, for pleasure, for instruction. But at what point in our life do we come to the point where this is the ultimate book on management?

This is the ultimate book on biography. This is the ultimate book on adventure that we would go to. Not that we throw all the other books away, but we come to a point after we've searched them all out and read them that we find we realize that nothing is more satisfying than making this the foundation of our knowledge. I have a lot of books on management and personal development on my shelf and have read over the years. Still pick them up and read them from time to time and look for new ones, but I think I've come to the point in recent times that this is not something that I'm going to gain the ultimate knowledge from those books in terms of how to lead people, how to motivate people, and how to be motivated by myself.

This is the ultimate book. This is the ultimate book. And if I don't master these principles and then recognize that what I might gain from a Stephen Covey or some other management guru is essentially what is of value there is built upon the basis of the word of God, then I'm going about it the wrong direction. And the stories of David or Ruth or whoever it might be from the Bible, those are the ultimate biographies to continue to read, to plumb, to study, and to pray for inspiration to understand. While at the same time I may still read a biography about George Washington or some other figure from history and enjoy it and learn from it, this is the ultimate book.

That's, again, those are the matters that make up our approach toward God that deepen our respect and our love for Him and allow God to glorify us just as Jesus was praying for that glory here. He shifts now in verse 6, and He begins to pray for His disciples. He says in verse 6, I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.

They were Yours. You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now, again, these are 11 men at this point that He had been with for over three years, and He knew these men pretty well. He knew their faults, their weaknesses, and their frailties. But He still knew the faults, but He still loved them.

He still wanted to be around them. That's quite a statement in itself in any human relationship, that you get to know somebody pretty well, and you still want to be around them. We tend to marry people like that. Even though we know each other's faults, within a marriage, we can still grow and deepen in love and affection for one another over the years.

And the same in our relationships, men to men, women to women, in the relationships that we have. Jesus knew that these men were going to scatter to their homes and leave them alone before the night was out. He knew that, but He still prayed for them, and He still had confidence in them. That's the important thing. He had a confidence that they would do what was right when the moment came. And they did.

He understood that when they would desert Him, when Peter would deny Him three times, that that was not a desertion of the heart. It was a desertion of the head. It was an impulsive desertion out of fear, out of uncertainty of the moment, but it was not a desertion of the heart, of their deep-down commitment to Him and to His message and to the work that they had been trained to do. He knew that. He knew it in advance. And that's why, again, He prayed for them. There was a powerful emotional work taking place here at this point.

He knew that the training that they had been given would be ignited, the power of the Holy Spirit, when the time would come. So this part of the prayer speaks to us to have really the same regard and respect for one another, that we, even as we know one another, as we've been called together. These were eleven men called from different walks of life. You had Matthew that was a tax collector. You had Peter who was a fisherman. They had different personalities and temperaments. You would have never given a group like this a battery of tests to try to form a team to go out and start an organization and chosen these eleven men with these particular differences of personality and temperament through any normal or human approach and psychological testing and that idea. Just as we look around ourselves in the church and we see the diversity of our backgrounds and of our personalities and our types, would we have ever come together in the same room, the same organization with each other had God not called us to it? We would have never crossed paths. We were on from different families and different career tracks and different ideas about life and God reached down and called us and brought us together according to His plan and purpose. And He called us to get along and He called us to work together and to love one another. Just as these eleven men had to learn to work together and Jesus Himself had to learn to love them. And here He's praying for them out of respect and a deep love. And He says here in verse 6, A leader who is centered on Christ knows that those He leads belong to God, not to Him.

They're not His. And that the leadership that we exert with people, speaking here from the point of view of the ministry, we have to give an account for. As the other scriptures show us, we will have to give an account. And we want to do it with joy, as Paul wrote in Hebrews 13 verse 17. We're going to have to give account, but we want to do it with joy, not with grief. So any leader of God's people knows that those He leads belong to God. And so there has to be a great deal of patience and learning and patient love developed to work with people. And that is manifested right here in this particular prayer that Jesus had. Verse 7, He says, Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you. For I have given them the words which you have given me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me. The disciples believed all that they had heard from Jesus. Everything.

And they didn't fully completely understand it as deeply as they would even 40 days later and a year later. But they believed, and that belief was deepened. And Christ's earnest desire at this point was that they would not be separated from Him or each other in the coming months and years through the persecution that would come. They would be briefly scattered.

And Peter said, I'm going fishing. And Thomas even missed the first appearance of Jesus after the resurrection. He came in later and had to be convinced by Jesus letting Him put His hand into the wound because He was even off in kind of a latecomer and coming back around. But it was a temporary scattering because when we read Acts 2, they were all together in one place with one accord on the day of Pentecost. So the scattering was not something that was permanent. They did eventually come back together. And it was because of this prayer and again because of their being able to work together. Verse 9, He says, I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you've given Me, for they are yours. And all Mine are yours, and yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. So Christ was invested in these men. He had trained them, worked with them, and He is still invested in His people. That's the encouraging thing to realize is that Jesus is still praying like this for you and I today as He makes intercession for us at the throne of the Father. You hold your place here and turn over to Romans 8 and verse 34. Romans 8, verse 34, and then Paul writes, Who is He who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. He makes intercession for us at the right hand of God. So when you look at this prayer that He made here for His disciples, understand that this is the same type of prayer that He makes for us to the Father today. Maybe different words, different circumstances, but it's the same passion, the same commitment, the same desire that we would be kept together because, as He says, all mine are yours and yours are mine and I am glorified in them. So He wants us to be at our best and He presents us at our best, perhaps even better than the way we think about ourselves when He makes intercession to the Father for us. Think about that. So we strive to want to glorify Him and to give Him glory in that way. Verse 11, I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you, Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you've given me that they may be one as we are. That they may be one as we are. You could say one, even though it's not in the text. You're saying that as you and I are unified, may they be unified. May they be one as we are. And so here's talking about unity. We talk a lot about unity in the church and it's a very desired quality among the people of God. And at times, unity that we really would like to have is kind of an elusive quality. We don't always have it to the degree we would like. Sometimes I think we may have defined it in ways that did not give it the full dimension of what the Bible speaks of and what it is talking about in matters of unity. Unity is not a forced condition that you just create by edict or by legislation.

You all be together. You put three kids in a room. You all get along. And the parent turns and leaves in two minutes. You find out how much unity there is. You can't just point your finger at your kids or any group of kids and demand. Maybe certain ones can with a look and with a right in tone and inflection. You can maybe enforce a certain level of uniformity for the moment, for the period of time that a teacher might have them in a classroom. Debbie tells me at times how she'll go into an unruly second grade or a first grade as a substitute teacher. They think they're going to have a day off because they've got a substitute. She has her methods of forcing unity. At least unity for the day or for the moment to at least bring certain order to the classroom. But the unity that the Bible talks about and what we strive for within the church is not something that can be forced by authority, by a person, by legislation. It's the unity that's really a unity of purpose that's bound together by God's Spirit. It's the grand purpose of the gospel of the kingdom and the purpose of life, of all men coming to share in the glory of God and bringing many sons to glory. Really, the unity that is that elusive thing we strive for is the unity that comes from the common calling that we share and the desire to see that knowledge shared with others. As we recognize what God has given to us and that He is bringing many sons to glory, we appreciate that. We understand our deep down purpose of life, and that is where we begin to develop the unity. Now, we have a unit we should all be together in terms of purpose, but over here we also want to be together in terms of teaching or doctrine.

We have a set of fundamental beliefs that define what we believe in the United Church of God. It's 18 or 20. I can't always keep those straight, but we have a booklet and we have about 20 fundamentals of belief. If it's 18, you can see that later. Correct me on that. And those define basic fundamental doctrines. And it is important that we have a fundamental teaching on the fundamentals of biblical doctrine. We don't, you know, for one, fully understand the confusion that comes when you don't have that in terms of what is defined by the Church in terms of basic doctrine. But that by itself doesn't bring about unity, not the real unity of the Scriptures talk about. I've been in this church, God's church for 45 years or so, and I don't know that I've ever seen this at a time in my experience where we've had full unity on doctrine.

Now, we kept the Sabbath and we kept the Holy Days. We believed in the Kingdom of God and we preached the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and we believed in other teachings. But I've always known of people and or ministers who didn't always agree on every nuance or shade of particular teachings, you represent some of that. You've had your ideas. I've had my ideas. But that doesn't mean we don't agree on the fundamentals. And there's enough there that we recognize that some things about Scripture or doctrine that we can grow in. God has shown us various things over the years where we've been wrong and we've corrected.

And so what I'm saying is, yes, you have a fundamentals of belief that you adhere to and that you teach, but doctrine by itself doesn't create the unity that the Scriptures here are talking about. You can't, and again, whether it's a pastor general or a minister or a council of elders cannot create unity by decree and legislating it. We can certainly teach it and encourage it, model it as best we can, and strive for it. But that by and of itself can't be done by legislation. My experience has taught me that it comes when there is a common desire to see the gospel of the kingdom preached. A deep passion for that. And when the church is unified in preaching the gospel of the kingdom and sharing the knowledge of eternal life with others and seeing that that knowledge goes out, that begins to develop the unity that Christ here speaks of where we are one as the Father and Jesus Christ are one. So that type of unity will override some of the other problems that come up, whether there may be a difference on teaching, whether there may be a difference in administration, or even a wrong that might be done, an egregious wrong in some cases when it comes to human relationships. We have a fundamental belief in knowledge and who we are and what God is doing with and through us, and we have a love for that truth that transcends there. But it begins with an excitement in being with others of like mind and strengthened through time spent with one another, and there's no shortcut there.

We have to go through the motions. We have to be together in services. We have to be together in other activities, and those lead to a strengthening of relationships and affection and concern for one another in what we have. And that is where that love comes from. It's something that we have to strive for. Years ago in the church, we used to call it something by the term first love. How many of you know what the term first love means? How many of you know that's a new concept, first love? Not everybody raised their hands, so I know some of you don't know what it means, but you're too embarrassed this morning. There's no term in the Bible called first love. We get the idea from what is said back here in Revelation chapter 3 or chapter 2 of the message to the church at Ephesus, where the church is told to repent, remember from where you have fallen. Revelation 2 and verse 5, the church at Ephesus, is told to remember therefore from where you have fallen. Repent and do the first works, or else I'll come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. The first works. Years ago we kind of did a play on that word.

We talked about first love. And a love that is among the first works that we do when we come into the church, and a love for coming to know about the Sabbath and the Holy Days and what they picture of it and the knowledge of the coming kingdom of God. And that knowledge creates an excitement and a zeal to find that there are others who feel the same way. And the excitement of learning and fellowshipping with others of like mind and continuing that together with an excitement that can't wait until next week. And if you miss the Sabbath, it's like you've missed five. And there's a gap in your week and in your life. But over a period of time, familiarity, life, problems in our life, problems in the church, diminish that love. And many different ways to define that. But there is a need to look at what Jesus said to the church there at Ephesus and to repent and to do the first works. Because when it comes to having this love for one another, that's part of, if you will, that first love. And it all works together in terms of our love for God and for the truth of God and all that we have. And even though it's something you may have lost, it is something that can be regained. And it's not something that's only for an adult who came into the church when they were 40 years of age and after a desolate life and having to repent of a lot of things and coming around and learning the truth for the first time. It's also for someone who's been in the church all of their life and took it for granted, has hung and endured, but perhaps has never seen it fully kick in. I got a letter just a few days ago via email from a subscriber who's actually a member of the church that illustrates exactly what I'm talking about. And I'd like to read a few paragraphs of this person's letter.

I'll change the name and won't tell you where they're from so that you don't try to put things together. But it just came in on July 18th, just a week ago yesterday, and it was a response to one of my email newsletter that I send out every other week to the subscribers to World News and Prophecy. And she was responding to the last one that I wrote, and she wrote a very long letter and a very kind letter, but what it says about her is what is most important. So let me just read you a few paragraphs from this individual. She says, she said, Coming up, she said, Hi, this is Mary, not a real name, but Mary, member of the United Church of God in blank. I've been wanting to send you a note of gratitude for the time and dedication you take in writing for World News and Prophecy, and especially most recently for your e-news updates. I wasn't sure if you would get a response if I replied directly to the e-news, so I hunted a little for a direct email. Just a little background. I grew up in the church, and after floating from the worldwide Church of God to the United Church of God, my husband and I stopped attending altogether in 1998, ten years ago. My children, however, have attended off and on with grandparents and always loved going to summer camp. Two years ago, my oldest daughter really wanted to attend the feast like all of her camp friends.

And well, long story short, we went for the weekend, leaving two of my girls to stay the week with grandparents. After leaving that week, I came home and opened a Bible that had gone untouched for many years, and I was unable to close it. I knew that very week that God was giving me a call back, as I refer to it. I told my husband that I would be going to church that next week, and we have been going ever since. It has been a wonderful and emotional journey, and at some point I'd like to share some of my experience in a United News article or something else. For about 21 months now, I've been reading like crazy, getting my hands on just about every church publication there is. I'm thrilled that I signed up for all the email updates as it is a weekly reminder of yet other avenues of learning and growing. I am amazed at the quality of writing in all the church booklets, magazines, and e-news. Last summer, I did not take advantage of your reading list, but I am so glad I did this year. I have to admit I skimmed Roman Jerusalem and rethinking heaven, but my great enjoyment has come from Chronicles of the Kings. Even though they are stories based on Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh, they are helping me to put that time period in perspective in a way that I could have never accomplished on my own. I have struggled with historical texts and lineage in the Bible, but this has spurred me on to understand more.

I suppose the greatest lesson I have learned so far in my reading these books and studying the events in the Bible is that human nature has always been the same. The Asherah idols have been replaced in our modern era, but idolatry is still in full swing in other acceptable ways of our culture. As a child, I thought all the biblical characters were always God-fearing, but I have come to understand that they experience the same struggles as we do now. In that day, it was a temptation to live only by the letter of the law, as opposed to having the heart to truly understand their great commission and the love that God wanted them to have for Him. They were tempted by the world around them more than I ever realized, and I understand that the same temptation all too well in this All-For-Me era. I would love to use some of the knowledge I've gathered from reading these to compare my struggles with theirs.

I think some wonderful comparisons could be made in a personal writing. I'll put that on my bucket list. So, she's reading not just my email newsletter, but that's what inspired her to write here, and I appreciate her taking the time to do so. But it's a person who grew up in the church, left, and came back, and has gotten excited, if you will, experiencing a first love after all these years and are bouncing in and out. God's Spirit can give us that first love when we seek it, when we truly seek it, and we begin to show a love for Him and a love for one another and a love for the truth, as Christ talks about here in this prayer. We can have that love that brings us together and makes us one as the Father and Christ are. Let's go on to verse 12 here in John 17. He said, While I was with them in the world, I have kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me, I have kept, and none of them is lost except the Son of Perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

So He understood the rejection that was to come for what you believe. But we have to take our stand with Christ, and we have to experience that from time to time. It should draw us closer to God and drive us toward one another rather than away. That's what He's saying here. Verse 15, He says, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one, from Satan. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. By knowing the truth, believing the truth, and living by the truth, that we are sanctified or set apart.

He says, your word is truth, and all of God's word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth. These verses here show Christ's deep concern for His disciples.

He lays out a means by which they would be kept spiritually safe, from the poles of the world, from Satan himself. He shows the revelation of the true Father, which is a beginning point.

We have to understand the true God, not a false concept of God. They understood Jesus was His messenger, that He was the Son of God. They accepted His words and teachings, and they believed Him. They accepted it as truth. And they moved to a deeper faith, belief, and walked with God. We're united with Christ in a system that guarantees eternal life.

When we understand all of those elements, then we can understand that. We can realize we are set apart for service to God. God has gone to a great length to ensure His love for us, and it's shown here in these scriptures. We have to show that appreciation for the work that is being done in each of us and learn to treat each other in the right way.

Without that respect and without that love, we're not going to be able to face the world with the true gospel of peace and salvation. Thus far, Jesus, through these 19 verses, prayed for Himself, to the Father, and He's prayed for His disciples. He's shown how to love the Father and that we have to have love for one another. It's those first two steps, if you will, that are essential to leading to the third part of His prayer, where He shows His love for those that were yet to come. Because beginning in verse 20, He prays, He says, I do not pray for these alone, for these disciples, but also for those who will be leaving Me through their word. So now His prayer goes outward. He's prayed for the disciples. He's prayed for Himself. Now His prayer goes to others, which is a key element, again, of unity. And for the church, whenever the church has a concern for others, it has a concern for the world in terms of preaching the gospel to the world. That also helps to bring the church together more than just about anything else in a historic sense. The period of greatest trouble internally in my years in the church have been when the church is focused inwardly. The times when I feel the most discouraged, maybe depressed, bewildered, out of focus personally is when I'm focused on myself and I'm not focused on things beyond me, people beyond me, issues beyond me. There comes a time when you have to quit crying in your beer and moaning your state and you have to get up and you have to start serving someone else and thinking about someone else and reaching out. Because at times that may be the only solution for some of the things that we deal with and it certainly can begin to help us get our mind off of ourselves and the miserable thoughts that we might be locked into and it just brightens and gives us a whole different perspective. Here Jesus prays for those that are to come. And this is extremely important here. This is a sweeping vision of the future. He prays for those in far off lands and distant times who would come in response to the gospel. But what is important to realize is that this would not happen and it will not happen for the church if the church does not first love God in truth and love itself, love each other. If we cannot get in sync with the first two parts of this prayer and show a proper love to God and a proper love for one another, then we're not going to show a proper love for the world because we're not going to want to take the knowledge God has given to us and share it with others so that God will call whom He will the other sons and daughters the glory that He would call.

If we don't get the first two right, we won't get the third right. We've got to love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul. We've got to want to please Him and be on very close intimate terms with Him. We've also got to grow to love one another. And those are the elements that bring about unity. Not a unity that's forced, legislated, demanded. That's the unity that's only superficial and it won't last. Unity in these passages is the unity that's rooted in a deep love for God and for one another and for those who are to come. Let's read in verse 21. He says that they all may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me, and the glory which you gave me I have given them that they may be one just as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in love, and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. The world sees that and knows what it does about the people of God, the work of God, the gospel of the kingdom of God because of that perfection and that love and that unity that has been developed. We love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul to come to know and to understand Him. And then we must grow in love toward one another. We must treat one another in a godly manner, even though we have not always done so. That's what we have to do. And I stand before you this morning and I tell you that, that if we are going to ever live up to what this Birmingham mandate, as I call it, says, and that is we have to treat each other in a godly manner, then we have to do it.

Now, I'm not the guru of love, okay? So I don't stand before you here as the paragon and the perfect example of this. Some of you already know that. So that's not a revelation.

But I know that it is what we must do because it is not just a mandate by 12 men in a southern city of the United States, it's really the mandate of God.

It's really what Jesus here is talking about. We've got to love God first and we have to love one another. And if we don't get those two right, then we're not going to have the love to go to the world with the gospel. And maybe in some of our halting efforts to preach the gospel, maybe that's why we haven't done quite the effective job that we should do, because we don't have the other two right. Because we don't love God enough and we don't love each other enough, those of us who are made in the image of God, how can we truly, passionately, fervently, urgently want to take the message of the kingdom of God and share it with the world out of love for them if we don't have the first two right?

But if we do get the first two right, then we won't have a love for one another and for God, and the love for the world in the way that Christ has it. After all, the one central verse that is so often quoted says, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. God loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He doesn't love the sin of the world. He doesn't love the ways of the world, nor should we. But we should have enough of a desire to share what God has given to us with the world. And if we do have the love for God and the proper love for one another, then we will have a strong desire to confront the world with the true gospel out of love. Not out of fear, but out of love. That's what we will want to do. That's what we should do. When you read even the warning messages from the book of Ezekiel, chapter 33, you see that that's done.

God says to Ezekiel, and as He did to any of the other prophets, to go and take a message to my people and to warn them. And it's done out of love that they would change, that they would repent, that they would share the knowledge of the truth. And that's what we should do.

That's why we desire to do that. But, brethren, if we don't first love God and properly love one another, then we're not going to have the passion and the zeal to preach the gospel with love to the world. We'll hold back out of fear, out of uncertainty. There'll be confusion, and it won't be done in the right way. This is what I gained from John 17.

These are some of my thoughts, as I endeavor to wrap my mind around what's most critical for the Church of God right now, from the opportunity that has been placed in my lap to be a member of the Council of Elders, and to frame my thoughts as I work in those areas and try to go forward, to do all the other things that we need to do. I've kind of framed my thoughts around John 17. This prayer of Jesus. I don't think I can go wrong there. I don't think any of us can go wrong as we try to get a handle on the most important things that we should do in order to be the people of God, and most importantly, to treat each other in a godly manner, with the hope that a unity can be forged that can't be broken, that can't drive us apart, separate us from God, or separate us from one another, or separate us from the commission and the responsibilities that we've been given. So I lay these before you this morning for you to focus on, and for you to pray about, for the work and for the sake of the overall church. And in so doing, hopefully your life will draw closer to God. We will draw closer to one another.

We will care for one another in a deeper fashion than even than we have done.

And that will spur us to share the wonderful news of God's kingdom and the truth that God is bringing many sons to glory for the world that desperately needs it, and fulfill a mandate to treat one another in a godly manner.