The Reformation: What you need to know and why by John Stott & Michael Reeves

Author:John Stott & Michael Reeves [Stott, John]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Monarch Books
Published: 2016-06-23T04:00:00+00:00

APPENDICES

Jesus’ Prayer for Unity in His Church

Alan Purser

John 17 is holy ground: Jesus prays for unity, that his church may be one. For this is the key to effective mission. It is a passage which has often been misunderstood.

I recall hearing a church leader say that the most serious cause of failure to evangelize our country was disunity within Christ’s church. Referring to Jesus’ prayer recorded in John 17, he pointed to Christ’s ardent desire for unity amongst his disciples, and the close connection between such unity and effective mission (17:21).

This raises the question of what exactly Jesus was saying, and leads us back to the text to investigate. In John 17 it is obvious how important unity is—three times Jesus prays for it (vv. 21, 22, 23)—so we are bound to ask ‘Who is such unity to be between?’ and ‘What kind of unity is meant?’ ‘What could be the connection between unity and effective mission’?

In a series of expositions from what we know as the Upper Room Discourse, delivered to the North American student missions convention in Urbana, John Stott brought a note of caution. These prayers, so often quoted, had, he said, come to be the proof texts of the ecumenical movement. It was important to understand their context if we are to interpret them correctly, and not be unbalanced, or even mistaken, in their interpretation. He went on to urge ‘careful and critical scrutiny.’22

Here we attempt to give them that scrutiny, for a study of these words offers far-reaching implications for church and mission today.

The structure of Jesus’ prayer is straightforward—first he prays for himself (see vv. 1–5), then for the disciples (vv. 6–19) and finally for ‘those who will believe through their testimony’ (vv. 20–26). The content of each phrase, however, varies. Now that Jesus’ hour has finally come, his prayer for himself is that he might be glorified in carrying out his Father’s will, with all the suffering that will entail. Turning to pray for the disciples, Jesus asks that they might be sanctified (set apart) for, and by, the truth—the truth that is found in God’s word—for this is how they will be able to withstand the enmity of the world. It was to this group of eleven soon-to-be apostles, that Jesus had already made promises about the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Sprit would enable them to recall all that he had taught them, and lead them into all that truth which they were not yet able to embrace (see 14:26; 16:8–11). Although Jesus prays that the apostles may be ‘one, even as we are one’ (v. 11) it is not until the third phase of his prayer that his petitions focus chiefly on unity. So let us look at 17:20–26 in greater detail.

‘I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word’ (v. 20). As Stott pointed out to the students, ‘Here Christ distinguishes between the apostles for whom he has just been praying and those who would later believe in him through their teaching.

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