Ok, so we just talked about how Jesus shows us how to satisfy our desire to connect relationally with others when He simplified the Commandments down to two:  Love God and Love Others.  Then he used that very principle to restore Peter after the resurrection.  If we are to Love God, we will also Love Others.  When we Love Others we begin to understand what it means to experience true community.  This principle of Loving God and Loving Others is so important to Jesus that in one of His final prayers before He was arrested and crucified, He prayed for the disciples and for us to experience the same type of community that He experiences within the Trinity.  There is a progression to this prayer that I want to make sure we see.  Jesus starts by praying for His disciples to experience the same type of community that He enjoys in the Trinity.

I am praying for them . . . Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. (John 17:9, 11, ESV)

Then Jesus adds God’s word, remember we talked two weeks ago about how God’s word can bring or restore rhythm to our lives.  Now after praying for community among the disciples and giving them God’s word, Jesus is praying for the disciples missional assignment.

I have given them your word . . . Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. (John 17:14, 17-18, ESV)

Jesus has been in community within the Trinity since before the creation of the world and God sent Him into the world, now Jesus, praying for His disciples and has given them God’s word is sending them into the world, just as the Father did with Him, so that they can have an impact on the world.  If we learn how to live in community with others and apply God’s word to our lives, we are ready to accept our missional assignment to go into the world!

As Jesus closes his prayer, we are now shown the results that are possible and the impact we can have in the world.

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 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. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 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. (John 17:20-23, ESV)

First, did you notice how Jesus has switched the focus of His prayer from His disciples to US!  We are “those who will believe”.  Before Jesus left this earth, He prayed for US to experience the same type of community that He experiences within the Trinity!  That’s cool.  Then He goes on to give us the outcome if we do this.  If we are able to live in community with others, apply God’s Word to our lives and go into the world and demonstrate that community and truth to the world, Jesus tells us that the world will believe that He was sent from God.  WOW!  Let that sink in for a minute.  If we do this right, the world will believe that Jesus was sent by God!!!

Have you ever asked yourself why Jesus offered this prayer just before he was arrested?  Why does anybody pray?  Isn’t it because we believe the answer to our prayers is possible?  Jesus prayed for those who would believe in Him to experience community because He believes the answer to that prayer is possible.  Not only is it possible, but Jesus has so much confidence in us to demonstrate this type of community to the world that the world will believe that He was sent by God.

The community we show or do not show as Christ’s church will have an eternal impact on those who are watching us.

Community + God’s Word + Missional Assignment = Changed World

One final thought, we can define community this way.  Like the bars on a cross, the vertical bar represents our relationship with God and the horizontal represents our relationship with others.  Where those two bars intersect, when we experience God and all of His fullness and His people in all of their fullness, true community is born.

Is your life out of rhythm?  Rhythm can be restored by spending time in God’s Word on a regular and consistent basis, spending time in prayer with God and listening for His guidance in your life and by loving others in true community.

My prayer for you is that over the past few weeks you have been challenged to restore God’s rhythm to your life!

Thanks for letting me share this series with you!

Say it if it’s worth savin’ me.

Do we feel that our friends are worth savin’?  I hope so.  Somebody thought I was worth savin’.  There is an even more challenging line from this song.  Towards the end of the song we hear these words, possibly from someone who was not lucky enough to be “saved” – “heaven’s gates won’t open up for me, with these broken wings I’m fallin’ and all I see is YOU“.  Let that picture settle in.  Do you have friends that know you are different?  know you go to church?  know you are one of those Christians?  What face will they see when their time is up and heaven’s gates won’t open up for them?  Do we know how to save a life?

So what does all of this have to do with beautiful feet?  In Romans 10:14-16, Paul is expressing his desire for people who don’t know God to be saved.  Then he asks a series of questions starting in verse 14, “but how can they call on him (Jesus) to save them unless they believe in him?  And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him?  And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?  And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?”  Do you see the progression in this series of questions?  To be saved they must believe, to believe they must hear, to hear someone must tell them.  Paul concludes in verse 17  that faith comes from “hearing the good news about Christ.”  Is it both awesome and scary that God is relying on His people to tell others this Good News.  Think about that, God chooses to use US to carry this Good News to a world that is crying out “say it to me if it’s worth savin’ me!”  When we do, God declares “how beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” (verse 15)

How much do I have to hate someone to not tell them what I believe to be good news?

Will I say it to them because it’s worth savin’ them?

Do I know how to save a life?

Do I have beautiful feet?

Hidden in the middle of the new U2 song Get On Your Boots are these words:

Here’s where we gotta be, love and community
Laughter is eternity, if joy is real
You don’t know how beautiful
You don’t know how beautiful you are
You don’t know and you don’t get it, do you?
You don’t know how beautiful you are.

The thing I love about great lyrics is they can often be interpreted many different ways. Without knowing exactly what this song may be about, I can give my interpretation of this lyric.

Here’s where we gotta be, love and community. What if this is a reference to Jesus’ prayer in John 17? If you are familiar with this passage you know that Jesus is praying for the unity of his disciples – “that they may be one, even as we are one” (v. 11, ESV). But Jesus is also praying for the unity of all believers, including you and me when He said, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 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..” (v. 20-21, ESV).

You don’t know how beautiful this image is to Jesus, do you? Have you ever asked yourself why Jesus offered this prayer just before he was arrested? Why does anybody pray? Isn’t it because we believe the answer to our prayers is possible? Jesus prayed for the unity or community of those who would believe in Him because He believes the answer to that prayer is possible. Not only is it possible, it is beautiful, so beautiful in fact that the world will believe that Jesus was sent by God. Wow! The community we show or do not show as Christ’s church will have an eternal impact on those who are watching us.

You don’t know and you don’t get it, do you? This sounds like a challenge. U2 for many years has written songs that in many ways challenge the church to rethink or reconsider some of the things we say we believe in. The lyric hidden in the middle of this song may in fact be a challenge to the church to rethink how we are portraying community to the world.

What would the local church look like if it really got serious about biblical community and made it accessible to everyone?

You don’t know how beautiful you are.