AXIOM #6The goal of discipleship is divine union. John 17:20-26

REVIEW> Check out our website or podcast to review this series. Last week’s axiom [AXIOM # 5 : What God does through you he always does in you.] These Axioms build on each other and overlap and we will see this, this week with AXIOM 6

INTRO> Being a pastor I have the privilege to do many things. One of those things is performing a wedding ceremony AND doing the premarital consoling beforehand. I suggest no less than 3 sessions but at the start, I always ask the same question: “What do you think the goal of marriage is?”

• • • • “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” – Genesis 2:24

APP> The goal of marriage is oneness. Why is that God’s plan, because it is a reflection of the God head:

• • • • “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Genesis 1:26 (*Trinity Picture) August 25th 325 A.D. Council Of Nicea *Read Nicien Creed

But that’s not just God’s plan for marriage, it’s also his plan for his church. Let me show you in our verses today.

CONTEXT> We are in the last night of Jesus earthly ministry. He is praying, longest recorded prayer. In v20-26 he is praying for non believers and those who will come to believe and his church. He uses the word “one” 6x in the entire prayer and 4x in these six verses. I want us to see something

• • • • • •   “… and they shall become one…” Genesis 2:24
          •   “… that they may all be one…” John 17:21

AXIOM 6: The Goal os Discipleship is Divine Union.

APP> Maybe you think the goal of discipleship is more knowledge, more classes. Maybe you think the goal of discipleship is modifying your behavior, some of those things happen as a byproduct of this divine union. Also, here is what this does’t mean:

• • • • • Oneness doesn’t mean sameness.
        • Unity doesn’t mean uniformity.

*ILL> Marbles vereses grapes.

APP> This oneness is a diversity that’s a unity.

1. Divine union is supernatural. v20

• • • • “ I do not ask for these only…” think about this. Jesus is praying to the Father and asking him to do this. Which tells us what? That this type of unity isn’t natural… it is supernatural!

APP> Need an illustration for this? Just look at the world today, completely divided. It is more natural for human beings to be divided than united because sin separates. Again, we see this in our world today, the greatest thing that you can be in our world today is an individual, true to your own self.

“God is the only unique individual. Since every one of us, the Bible says, by nature seeks to be our own god, all of us feel that we’re unique. I’ll put it this way. One of the first results of sin is that you think you’re more unique than you really are. You feel like, “I’m special. Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. Nobody knows what I go through. Yes, it looks like I’ve done this and this, but I’m different. I’m special. I have unique feelings. I have unique needs. You don’t understand. Nobody understands, because I’m God; I’m unique.” The first response to sin is you think nobody understands you because you’re so special.Somebody said that sin creates a relentless, sleepless, unsmiling concentration on the self and its needs that in turn completely isolate you from other people.” – Keller

2) Divine union is vertical.

• • • • “… that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you…” This is a deeply profound and theologically deep statement that Jesus is making here! The phrase “just as” καθώς kathōs is a conjunction, joining these things together .

APP> We have fellowship with the Father through the Son by the Spirit.

*ILL> This is how my mind works. Do you remember those “staking dolls” toy. They are a Russian toy and one fits into the other.

What does “union with Christ” mean?

• • • • • • • We share his life and standing with the Father.
            • We share in his death (we were baptized into his death),
            • in his resurrection (we are resurrected with Christ), in his ascension (we have been raised with him),
            • in his heavenly session (we sit with him in heavenly places, so that our life is hidden with Christ in God),
            • and we will share in his promised return (when Christ, who is our life, appears, we also will appear with him in glory

APP> This then is the meaning of baptism when the consumption of that union takes place. (Pic)

APP> You will never be able to love completely until you know that you are completely loved.

3) Divine Union is horizontal.

• • • • “…. that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me..”

APP> Division in the church breeds atheism outside the church.

APP>. When the church as a family is unified God as our Father is glorified.

CLOSE> Where do we see this vertical and horizontal love? The cross… two beams…. one vertical representing God’s love for us and a horizontal beam for our love for another.

• • • Do you know God’s love for you? (Vertical)
    • Are you expressing that love for one another? (Horizontal)

AXIOM 6: The Goal os Discipleship is Divine Union.