TXT3

For those of you who may have missed Sunday night’s TXT3 Community Night, we were not able to record Part 2, so I thought I would share my final thoughts here.  You may want to listen to Part 1 before you continue…

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!