Good morning. In our recent sermon series it has been a key truth that the world will know that we are truly disciples of Jesus when we love each other. It is a powerful testimony for Jesus when all of us who love Him love each other in noteworthy, meaningful ways. For today’s thought I would like to have us consider another of the great realities of the Body of Christ, His church, which testifies about Him. That great reality of the Body is the unity of the Body that we are to experience and enjoy. At least, that is the prayer of Jesus for us, which tells us that it is His fervent desire. Jesus prayed that we, His beloved brothers and sisters of faith, would be one even as He and the Father are One.
We read the prayer of Jesus in John 17:20-23 “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.
Jesus’ prayer to the father is not only for His close disciples, those 12 who have been with Him for the three years of His public ministry, but for all of us as well. His prayer is for our blessing, our encouragement, and for our testimony of Him. It is when the world sees that the Body of Christ, His church, is united in mind, in spirit, in love, and in purpose that they will recognize Him. It is by our unity that they will see the power and the love of Jesus truthfully proclaimed.
Now for a dose of reality. Is today’s church, the Body of Christ, truly an example of unity? Are we presenting the world around us with an undeniable testimony of the love and power of Jesus Christ through our own spiritual unity?
The Restoration Movement, that unity effort of church leaders begun 220 years ago, came into being because good Christian men and women recognized that the Body of Christ was everything but united. Denominational church leaders seemed to have made it their primary mission to find reasons to separate from one another. One of the great early leaders of the Restoration Movement was Thomas Campbell. Before coming to America and joining with other Christian men and women to find and develop paths to greater unity, Thomas Campbell served The Old Light Anti-Burgher Seceder Presbyterian Church of Ireland. If you were to change or remove any single portion of that long title, say…make yourself pro-Burgher rather than anti-Burgher, you would be considered a spiritual enemy and unfit for the sharing of the Lord’s Supper. These incredible divisions were the rule within every denomination, and those divisive identities were even more pronounced from one denomination to another. There was no unity within the Body of Christ, and therefore their testimony of Jesus was lacking.
That same divisive spirit was intended, by those who were in charge of the particular denominations, to be continued and emphasized in America, the New World.
Thomas and Alexander Campbell, as well as a great many other Christians who found themselves in America, began to question why. How could this be the will of Christ for them? How could the Lord, who prayed for their unity and proclaimed that it would be by way of that unity that the unsaved world would come to recognize Him, how could He have intended for there to be such divisiveness within His church? They couldn’t perceive of any way that it would be possible, so they went about making changes.
Their idea was to “restore” the church of our Lord to His intended design rather than to waste energy protesting what they disagreed with or to attempt to reform that which was considered to be in error. Jesus had given us His instruction and His model, why not do our best to honor Him and to restore that which He so graciously has given?
It was an argument that made sense in the early 1800s. It is an argument that continues to make sense in 2022.
The unity of the Body of Christ is a very significant ideal. It is so grand that you could accurately say that it must be divine in origin. It is so grand that it is reasonable to assume that it cannot be accomplished through the best efforts of men and women. It is so grand that it must be accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the uttered will of God as expressed in His truth, which is His Word.
The unity of the Body of Christ is so grand that you and I are not going to solve every problem or straighten out every error. But we can make a start. We can commit to the unity of the Body of Christ where we are worshipping, with those we love, with those we serve. Perhaps the best efforts that we can give to the cause of the unity of the Body of Christ, will testify of Him first and foremost to our fellow Christian believers.
We must try. It is His prayer and therefore we know that it is His will.
Vern