The Heart of Jesus (Part III): That We May Be One

John 17:20-26

By David Turnerwww.BibleStudies-Online.com

Can 1+1=1?

“A man shall leave his mother and his father and cleave to his wife

and they shall become One flesh”

Can one be two, or two one?

Can two not be one?

Can 1+1+1=1

Can many not be one?

Many people but One Church

Pull out a US coin

e pluribus unum (“out of many—one”)

Biblical Oneness is not

Biblical Oneness is not

Biblical Oneness is not:

• God as one with the creation.• An infinite universe with an infinite God.• Mankind being one with God, as if each one of

us is God.• Mother Earth, married to Father Son

Biblical Oneness is:

• The Father is God• The Son is God• The Holy Spirit is God• There is only ONE God

We are not God, but

We can be one with God!

Biblical Oneness

When we believe in the Son, we receive forgiveness from the Father and become indwelt

by the Holy Spirit .

We become children of God, separated from the world and one with God and the universal family

of God.

John 17:20-26 (ESV)20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 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.

• Not just the apostles who heard the word through me, but

• All who hear the word through them

• We may be one with each other

• That the world May believe the Father sent the Son

Indwelling yields Oneness

21b 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 Father is in the Son• The Son is in the Father• His desire is those after

the apostles may be in God– By hearing the word,

receiving the word, believing the word, we are in the Father and Son

– Result --- World may believe the Father sent the Son.

Unity is accomplished through the glory of the cross.

22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,

• The glory is the cross.– He said earlier, “Now

glorify me that I may glorify you…”

– The glory of the cross brings oneness• It purifies us of sin and

gives us access to the Father.

• It opens us up to the indwelling of the Spirit.

Knowledge of God’s love gives unity

23 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.

• Christ in us,• The Father in the Son• So that– Believers may be

perfectly One (mature)– The world will know the

Father sent the Son– That the world may

know the love the Father had for us, the love he had for the Son.

Unity is in the future with Jesus24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

• Believers may be with Jesus in eternity– To witness his heavenly

glory– To witness his eternal

glory

Contrast – Know/Don’t know

25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

• The world doesn’t know the Father

• Jesus knows the Father• Those that know Jesus

was sent by the Father know the Father.

We will grow in our knowledge of the Father

26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

• We know the Father because the Son made him known

• The Son will continue to make the Father known.

• Why, so the love the Father has had for the son will indwell in those that know the Son.

• So the Son’s love may indwell them.

Knowing

Knowing about my wife doesn’t bring me oneness with my wife.

The more I Know her, the more I become ONE with her.

It’s not about knowing something about someone

It’s about knowing that someone.

Knowing about God is not knowing God.

Know Jesus, Know God, no Jesus, no God.

Do You Know Him?

“Talk about what you believe and you have disunity. Talk about Who you believe in and you have unity.”

E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), missionary to India.