Cornerstone PLUS

So it's a joy to be here and joy to be with you. And you've been doing a week of reading through Luke's gospel a media fast but also praying. I went, Peter and I were talking about this earlier in the week. It seemed to be, it'd be quite appropriate to this morning look at it from the other side and look at Jesus's prayer for his people. So please turn with me to John chapter 17, the so called high priestly prayer of the lord Jesus, John chapter 17.

Remember this is the prayer that Jesus prayed just on the eve of going to the cross, so it carries all the poignancy and power of a man facing his last, hours on earth as it were. And he prays for himself. He prays that, god's name would be glorified. He prays for the disciples, whom he's passing this gospel on to. And then he prays for the church for whom the apostolic gospel in turn would be passed to we're going to pick it up in verse 20 of John chapter 17.

My prayer is not for them alone. That is the disciples. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. That all of them may be 1 father, just as you are in me, and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be 1 as we r 1, I in them and you in me so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you've sent me and have loved them, even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory. The glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous father.

Though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. I don't know if like me, you've ever heard yourself saying, I'm really sorry to hear that. I, but I will pray for you. And then when you've revisited that conversation a week later to your shame, you recognize that you actually hadn't prayed for that person.

How often have I made that promise genuine at the time, but just the events of life, busyness of it overtook I guess I'm not alone in that experience, which is why certain Christian men and women stand out in our affections because not only do they promise to pray for us, they do pray for us. Tom Toton was 1 such man to have Tom pray for you was to be blessed indeed. Tom was 1 of the original gang of 3, Tom, Dick, and Harry. Tom, Dick and Harry, Tom Toton, Dick Pink, who was, an ex squadron leader pilot in the second World War, and Harry Hillbride, the first pastor of Cheston evangelical Church, 47 years ago, began to meet together on a Monday morning, to pray for the church to pray for the ministry of the previous day to pray for the church as she was scattered out into the workplace and into the population in general. That prayer meeting, 47 years Later it still goes.

Every morning between 11 and 12 in Chesington, there's a prayer meeting for men and 47 years on, there's about a dozen or 15 men that will gather. But Tom was 1 of the originators of that. When you visited him, as I did as the pastor, 1 of the great privileges was to visit him, You were ushered into his front room. There's always a burning log fire, regardless of the season. So if you went there in the summer, you learn to die for 1 of the little lail cokes in the corner to at least minimize the effect of the heat.

That didn't seem to have any effect upon him, but actually left you wilting after about 10 minutes. But after 10 minutes of general chat and so on, He wanted to get down to business, and business was praying. And invariably, he would know more about the church and more about the work of insight for which I was the chairman at that time than I did. He would know where the workers were that day and he was praying for them and this sort of thing. It was an astonishing thing to be prayed for by Tom Toton was 1 of the great privileges of life.

And I'm sure when the story is told of god's blessing upon that particular church, the prayers of Tom and Dick and Harry and many other men and women will be seen to have the power behind it. But if it's precious to have another Christian pray for us, How much more precious to have the lord pray for us? That really pales into its significance, doesn't it? The the preciousness of a prayer of a fellow believer beside the prayer of the lord Jesus for us. And that's what we have for us here in John 17.

And notice what he's praying for. What would you pray for if it was your last day on earth? Was it, I can't remember his name. Maybe it was h g wells or somebody said nothing like an execution settles the mind upon priorities. And Here's Jesus playing, praying for the priority.

And what is the priority for Jesus? This is the amazing thing, isn't it? It is the people for whom he came to earth in the first place. It is his church. The church is the apple of his eye, the passion of his heart.

No wonder, therefore, In his last hours, he's praying for the church. For the apostles who are going to take the apostolic gospel out into that first century world, and then as the gospel rolls out through the centuries for every man woman, boy and girl who's going to believe in this gospel, and be included in this universal family of god, the church, Within hours, he's going to go to the cross to pay the price to win them. No wonder he prays for the church. If as James tells us, the pair of a righteous man, like Tom Toton avails much, How much more the prayer of the lord Jesus Christ? And dear friend here this morning, I want us to realize that the lord Jesus Christ is we've been praying this week, to be reminded, actually, the lord Jesus Christ constantly prays for us, his people.

Collectively every local expression, every local church individually. He's praying for us just as he did for Peter, Peter, you remember with all his boasts and all his arrogance and all his pride. I'll never leave you. Yes, you will. But I have prayed for you, Peter.

Satan has sought to to to sift you, Peter, but I have prayed for you. None shall pluck you out of my hand, but what exactly does Jesus pray? Well, let's have a look at it. Just 2 things I wanna point out here in this in this wonderful prayer. Firstly, verses 21 to 23, He prays that his people will be united in him together.

I pray for those who will believe in me through, that is the apostolic message, that all there may be 1, father, just as you are in me and I am in you. Now in praying for the unity of his people, Jesus isn't praying about a shared sentiment We say people were united in their grief, and that's a very powerful thing, isn't it? He's not talking about a shared intellectual ascent comrades in a common cause. No. He's talking about a relationship.

He's talking about relational unity. He prays that those who down through the ages are gonna believe in him through this apostolic gospel will be aware that as they believe they are joined to the most profound and glorious and wonderful relationship in the universe. That of god himself who lives in community, father, son, and holy spirit, and who has purposed to bring a new humanity into relationship with him. This is the glory of the gospel. God is recreating a new humanity.

I pray that they may be 1 father just as you are in me and I am in you. The unity Jesus prays for is for Christians to grasp that the unity is a supernatural relationship with the love and the life of god himself. That prayer was initially answered when 3000 on the day of pentecost believed in the apostolic message. But they've proven to be a mere handful alongside the millions who down over the last 2 millennia have trusted in the lord Jesus Christ. But in so trusting, every believer is wedded to god and wedded to 1 another.

That's what the gospel does, isn't it? It reconnects us to god, and it reconnects us to 1 another. Wedded in a supernatural way, unity to the love and the life of god. That's what we share as Christians. We share in the love of god and in the life of god.

This is what Jesus is praying for. This unity isn't something that we have to engineer. No. It's actually a given in the gospel. You are united into Christ.

Paul tells us in ephesians what we have to do as Christians is to maintain that unity. The 1 thing we can do with it is break it or maintain it. So Paul prays that in the power of the spirit, we would maintain obtain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. It's a given in Christ. Of course, the sad fact is that Christians down through the ages have repeatedly broken this unity, but it doesn't take away from its essential god given reality.

If you are in Christ this morning and I am in Christ this morning, this prayer has already been fulfilled by dint of our common faith in Christ, we are united to him as the apostolic creed puts it, the apostles creed, we are the communion of the saints. We've already sung about that in our very first song this morning. Now this unity is of supreme importance. It must be, isn't it? It is top of the list of Jesus's prayer.

He's going to die the next day. What's he want? He wants this unity. But why? What's so important about it?

The reason may surprise us. The reason is his love for those people who aren't yet Christians His reason is his love for the lost. You see, he has this expectation But the reality of Christian unity will have a magnetic effect upon the non Christian world. It's not a new idea. It's right back there in the old testament.

Come with me, please, back to deuteronomy and chapter 4. Here are god's people rescued from, slavery, entering into the promised land. It's all figuring what Jesus is going to do, when he comes to earth, but given the law of god, by which they can love god. And this is what Moses says to the people. Verse 5 of chapter 4, see, I have taught you decrees and laws as the lord my god commanded me so that you may follow them in the land that you are entering to take possession of.

That's why the law is given. Observe them carefully. For this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nation who will hear about all this decrees and say, surely, this great nation is a wise and understanding people. What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them? The way the lord our god is near us, whenever we pray to him.

And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I'm setting before you today. Do you get the picture? There's this expectation that the nations around Israel will observe them in such a way to to be attracted to them, to be envious of them because they have the presence of god among them. And when you've got that, you have wisdom abroad. You have love abroad.

You have care abroad. You have just disabroad. You have good things that we all long for as human beings. There's to be this attractive nature of the gospel, and there it is back in deuteronomy. The Psalmist talks about it in Psalm 133.

How blessed it is when brothers dwell together in unity because there, the lord sends his blessing, even life forevermore. Do you see what that's saying? When Christians live together in unity, God's blessing us upon those people, and it's attractive. There's new life. It brings eternal life to people around.

That's the way it works, isn't it? You see, what is the gospel at heart? It's a message of reconciliation. So here we are holding out a message of reconciliation, and we say to the world to the non Christian through the grace of god we have been reconciled to god. And because of that, we are reconciled to 1 another.

While they say, Why is it then that you're always arguing and falling out with each other? Don't talk to me about a message of reconciliation. It doesn't work. Do you see what the first thing to go out the window when a church becomes divided is mission and evangelism. That's the way it works, isn't it?

And the world looks on and says it's rubbish. This message of reconciliation, it doesn't work. Do you see therefore why the lord Jesus has this passion about the unity of his people? Because where there is unity And don't get the wrong idea. It doesn't mean people have to think all the same way and dress the same way and all that kind of nonsense.

There's a wonderful diverse and unity and ephesians, isn't that? But what it does mean is people have such a grasp upon god's love for them in Christ. Such a sense of privilege about being born again to a living hope and put into the family of god, that that is so precious to them that they see themselves as they really are in the sight of god, a sinner saved by grace, and they see 1 another as other sinners saved by grace. And therefore have a different view of their brothers and sisters. What Jesus is saying is here, people need to see the message in action.

That's why it's so important. Paramount importance to him. Look at verse 22, 3 again. I have given them the glory you gave me that they may be 1 as we are 1, then the world will know that you have sent me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Going to the cross, Jesus has his eye upon the glory to come.

Hebrews tells us it was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross. What was that joy? It was the joy of you and I if we're a Christian. It was the joy of having people from every tribe, every nation, every people group throughout time gathered reconciled into his family forever. And it was all for his glory.

That's what he's praying for. That's what he's come to earth for. So the immediate question for every 1 of us this morning is this, isn't it? Is there another Christian in the church that you're avoiding because you're out of sorts with them. There's some disagreement between you.

Your in essence disunited from them. And it's easy to cover it up and the larger the churches, the easier it is to cover it up. But you can't cover it up from the lord the head of the church, who's praying for us to be united. You see, Christian love is tough love. Christian love sees ourselves as we really are and is ready to hear truth, as well as to tell truth.

We're quite happy telling the truth to other people, aren't we? Do we hear the truth about ourselves? You know, sometimes people come to us. I've had this. And they might come, and it's all wrapped up in the wrong package.

You might feel that they're just having a go at you. They're they're saying something you it's you're not accepting it. But what I've learned over the years is I might not like the package in which it's come, and there may be a lot of sin mixed in with it. But what is it that I'm missing that this person has put their finger upon? You see, the gospel humbles us, doesn't it?

And it humbles us to recognize that god is at work in us and god is at work in that other person. And his great purpose is to bring a unity between us. Doesn't mean we're all gonna have the same level of friendship with 1 another, but it does mean that we are committed to loving 1 another and resolving our differences for the glory of God because it's about the gospel. We don't want anybody saying, don't tell me about the gospel at Trevor Archer. I know he's not he he doesn't live at peace with this person and that person and that person is a fraud.

I don't want anybody saying that. So while it's within our power, Christian friend, we must. We must have the courage and seek the power of god to talk with 1 another about these things. Is there a relationship this morning that you must put right We must take this prayer seriously. Mustn't we friends.

Jesus prays for the unity of his people because it's all about the gospel and we all know churches sadly that have fallen apart and fallen into disrepute and at the heart of it is a broken relationship. I don't know a church where that's not true, but it's in that situation. God guard us from it. It's the big attack of the evil 1, isn't it? We have a god given unity.

We are in him. Please see that. Please see that. But please see secondly that we are united to him forever versus 24 to 26. We're not only in him.

Jesus is rejoicing in the fact that we're gonna be with him forever. There's a great scene. I'm showing my age now, 1 of my favorite films is far from the Madding crowd, not the recent remake of it. That was a pale imitation. The real 1 was done back in the sixties or seventies with Alan Bates and, Julie Christie.

And the story of Thomas Harder's story, far from the Mading Crow is all about this guy Gabriel. He's a farmer, and he's besotted with the beautiful bathsheba. Who lives on the farm next door. And his dream, as he tells her, is this, and they come from down in Dorset, and he says bathsheba 1 day, I shall be with thee, and thee will be with me, and we shall be sat around the fire side together forever. If I'm an old romantic, but it's the welshmi, but that's that's all you want, isn't it?

If you love somebody, you just want to be with them. Isn't that the case? If you love somebody, The paramount thing in your life, you just can't wait for the time you're together again. Think how many pop songs express that. It's so central to our humanness.

We long for love and in the gospel, we've been given love. And here's Jesus, and his disciples are grieving, aren't they? As he talks to them in this passage. Why? Because he's talking it's bewildering for them.

He's talking about going away. I'm going away to prepare a place for you. He says in chapter 14. He's talking about his death. They can't get their head around that.

That's gonna be the end of it all. They're just overwhelmed with sadness. And he says to them, earlier on, don't let your heart be troubled You believe in god. Believe in me also. My father's house has many rooms.

I'm going there to prepare a place for you that where I am, you may be also. You know, the glorious benefit of being a Christian isn't simply forgiveness of sin. It's it's not simply justification by faith that we can't earn salvation. Unspeakably wonderful that those things are. The greatest benefit of being a Christian is that I'm in Christ and I'm gonna be with Christ because it's a relationship.

It's a love relationship. And these disciples didn't realize it at the time, but he was going to the cross so that that love relationship would never be broken, never be severed, by death. It would transcend the grave. 2 weeks ago, 1 of my dearest friends Simon Forshore, many years and Elder at Chesington passed away. Same week as David.

And Simon was diagnosed with a terminal, cancer just 3 months earlier, told he had just 2 to 3 months to live. And we were close friends. And so I visited fairly regularly down in Bournemouth. And on the last occasion, Saddie's bedside, we read a Psalm together. And then although he was very weak, He continued.

His wife thought she was he was trying to say something to her. He was. What is he doing? He was reciting Psalm 23. The lord is my shepherd.

And he got through it and she realized that. And then at the end of it, he prayed for her He prayed for their 2 girls. He prayed for their grandchild. He prayed for his friends that they will be together forever in Christ. You can't put that on, can you?

That's the glorious reality of the gospel, and that's our glorious hope. Oh, we're brokenhearted when we lose our loved ones. We're devastated by that. We grieve, and it's right to grieve, and it's human to grieve, and it's terrible when when Christians don't understand that. Part he weeps at the tomb of his friend, lazarus.

It ought not to be like this. Death is an alien invader. It's awful. It's terrible. It's a it's an oga.

It's a beast. We weep. We grieve, but we don't grieve as those who had no hope. No. Why?

Because this 1 who spoke this prayer was the same 1 who rose again on the third day because death could not contain him. He's the king of life of eternal life. And he's saying, you know what I'm doing? You can't get your head around it at the moment. And even now, we can't get our head around it.

But a day is coming, and we just sum of it. When Christ will come and make all things new, and the dead in Christ will rise to be with him, and we will be with him forever. And this is the fulfillment of his prayer. I will be with thee, and you will be with me. Is that the longing of your heart?

I'm sure in your better moment, Christian, it is, isn't it? This world is so transitory, so fleeting. And Jesus is praying that we shall have such Such of captivation with Christ, with his love, with his mercy, with his grace to us. That we will hang loose, that we will see the importance of our relationships to reflect the unity that's been given to us, but also we will encourage 1 another that this is our destiny. And it's the destiny we want for people around us, isn't it?

Because we're surrounded by people and it's nothing sadder than death. To go to the in-depth, to go to the funeral of a non Christian, how desperately hopeless that is. But that isn't the worst thing. There's a judgment to follow. And here we are, a ragged muffin of people.

Look around. We are Ragamuffin, aren't we? What has God done? He's put his grace upon your life. He's called you to himself.

He's saying, I'm gonna give you x numbers of years here on earth, and I want you to live them for my glory. Knowing that you are in me, the most secure place in all the world, and 1 day you're going to be with me forever. In a new heaven, a new earth, the home of righteousness. Can you imagine why that's going to be like a you can't. Not even the most fanciful, glorious, imaginative mind can really understand what the lord has laid up for those who love him.

Right now, today, tomorrow this week. We are passionate about being united in him and with him together. I got grown that to us, let's pray. Father, it is an amazing truth to think that your son Jesus prays for us. He ever lives to intercede how glorious that is.

And when we are our weakness and our lowest, And our most vulnerable, we thank you father that he has prayed, and he does pray for us, and that none can snatch us out of his hand. Father, we thank you for the joy and privilege of knowing men like Simon Forshaw and Dave Redington, men who walked humbly with you and knew with a passion, this unity, and lived it and prayed it for your glory. Help us to pick up the mantle, the example that they've left us, but more than that, lord, help us, to be those who claimed Christ and claimed to the hope that is ours in him and use our brief life here on earth for his glory. Lord help us. We pray.

Thank you for the church here. Thank you for Cornerstone church. Thank you for the lord Jesus who prays for this. And every other local church. Father, we are all too aware of our weakness, our frailty, our vulnerabilities, of our sins.

Please forgive us, and where we need to help us to put things right if that is needed but most of all, jealously guard this given unity. We pray that others might come to know Christ. Others might come into this community of your people and say, what is it? See how these people love 1 another. Father, we want to be a pale reflection, but a reflection nevertheless of your love.

But others might be 1 for Christ. Here I'll pray for this. We pray in the saviors, me. Oh, man. Oh, man.