John 17:1-5

&nb= sp;

God is glorified by our faith,

our unity, our joy, and our witness.<= /span>

A sermon preached by

Rev. Bud Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

July 29, 2007

In our success-ori= ented, production-driven, possession-dominated world, it often seems like we lose touch with who we are. We kno= w what to do; we know how to get the job done, whether it is at work or at home or= at our doggedly determined pursuit of leisure. But we forget in the process the re= ason we are doing all this. What d= oes it mean? Where are we going? Why do we live like this? Someone has suggested that instead= of calling ourselves “human beings,” we should call ourselves “human doings,” because it is what we do that defines us to the world, not who we are.

Personally, I run = into this many times on the golf course, especially if I go out to play by mysel= f, and I get paired up with one or more strangers. On the first tee, there are usually introductions and jokes about how badly we all play. But by the third or fourth hole, curiosity has taken hold, and you want to know who these people are that you’re playing with. So inevitably the question comes up, and it comes up like this: “So, what do you do?” = or “What business are you in?”&nb= sp; You never ask, “So, who are you really?” or “What = do you find meaningful?” or “What is your mission in life?” It’s just not done. It’s bad enough when they find out I’m a Methodist preac= her, and for some reason they feel like they can’t use their “golfing words” any more, and it messes up their game!

This morning I want to= think about the question, “What business are you in?” What business are you in as a Christian? What is the purpos= e of your life? What are you calle= d to do and to be on this earth? I= think the Christian writer C. S. Lewis gave a good answer to that question when he said, “The glory of God, and, as our only means to glorifying him, the salvation of human souls, is the real business of life.”= = [1] Our vision as a church is to be &#= 8220;a community of faith, connecting people to God, to each another, and to the world.” Our mission is = to make disciples for Jesus Christ—to save the souls of people—thr= ough proclamation, discipleship, and hospitality. But our real business is to glorif= y God.

Jesus was all about the business of glorifying God. H= is primary purpose was to glorify his Father, and to do that he even went to t= he cross to save us from our sins. In this prayer recorded in John 17, Jesus had reached the climax, the summit of his ministry on earth, and he prayed for the glory of God: “Father, the hour has come; glorify the= Son so that the Son may glorify you.”[2]

In this great prayer of Jesus, he prayed for many things. He prayed for faith. He thanked God that the disciples = had received his word and believed in him.&nbs= p; He also prayed for those who would receive his word through the testimony of his disciples, that they would come to believe as well.

Jesus prayed for unity. Three times he asked God to hold t= he little band of disciples together, = “that they may all be one.”[3] I’ll say more about= that in a minute.

Jesus prayed for protection. He prayed that God would prote= ct his disciples. He had protected t= hem while he was on earth, but now that he was returning to the Father, they ne= eded supernatural protection from God to survive the attacks of the evil one.= = [4]

Jesus prayed for truth. In the 8^th chapter of J= ohn, Jesus told his disciples, “If= you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the trut= h, and the truth will make you free.”[5] In the great prayer, he asks = God to “sanctify them in the truth.&= #8221;= = [6] Of course, Jesus is the truth= , and if we know him, we know the truth for life.

Finally, Jesus prayed = for love, the crowning experience of = the Christian life. He prayed for= his disciples to have the love in them that God had for his Son. In that love we “live and move and have our being.”[7]

The whole prayer, which takes up an entire chapter in the Gospel, is as difficult to read as it is important to understand. Some= have called it the real Lord’s Prayer, since it is the prayer of Jesus to = his Father. Some have called it t= he high priestly prayer of Jesus, since he prays for his disciples like a prie= st interceding for his people. W= hat I want to do is to take just a few of the most important ideas out of this chapter, and to see how these impact our real business in life. How can we glorify God as a church= and as disciples of Jesus? What c= an we do or be so that God receives the same honor and worship and praise and glo= ry that he did when Jesus was praying to him the night before he died? Let me offer four suggestions take= n from the prayer itself.

God is glorified by our faith.&nbs= p; Nothing delights the heart of our heavenly Father more than to have one of his chil= dren believe in him. When we belie= ve, we honor God. When we claim a relationship with him, all heaven rejoices. The primary thing the disciples di= d was to believe that Jesus was the Son of God and to receive his words and to li= ve by his commandments. That was= the whole purpose of the Gospel. = John 20:31 says, “These things are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son = of God, and that through believing, you may have life in his name.”<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> When we believe, that means that we trust in God and put him high on our list of priorities. We also ensure our place in eternal life. We know that one day we= will join the throng gathered around the throne and sing to God, “Blessing and glory and wisdom a= nd thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”[8] That faith gives God glory.

Karen and I have been blessed with two wonderful sons, and they have both given us many things to= be proud of. Through their growi= ng up years, we celebrated every accomplishment, whether it was athletics or academics or music. Whatever = they did, we were proud of them. B= ut two days when I was so proud I could hardly speak were the days each of our boys knelt at the altar of the church and were confirmed in the faith. Of course, we had them baptized as infants, but at confirmation, they were accepting that faith for their own. I laid my hands on them = and spoke their names and said, “Remember your baptism and be thankful. The Holy Spirit work within you, t= hat having been born through water and the Spirit, you may live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.”[9] Both times I could hardly get the = words out, my throat was so thick with emotion.&= nbsp; At that moment, they were claiming the faith that we had taught them= for 12 years. They were accepting= the vows we made on their behalf when they were babies. They were entering a relationship = with God through the grace of Jesus Christ, forgiven of their sins, heirs with a= ll other believers of the great promise of eternal life. It was one of the proudest moments= of my life. It was a moment of glory. And if this sinful hum= an heart can feel that way about my own kids, think how our heavenly Father, w= hose love is pure and unconditional, must feel when any of his children believe = in him. It must be a glory!

Secondly, God is glorified by our unity. I think Jesus knew this was going to be a problem. That’s why he = prayed three times in this one chapter that his disciples and those who came after them would all be one. Jesus = wanted unity in his followers. But b= efore that night was over, one of his chosen twelve had defected to his enemies a= nd betrayed him. And when the ch= urch got started in Acts 2, it took only four chapters before there was disunity over the treatment of the Jewish and Greek widows in the church.=

One Sunday in a small church, the pastor was doing a children’s sermon, telling the children gathered around the altar that Jesus wanted us all to be one. A little girl shot up her hand and= said, “But I don’t want to be one!&n= bsp; I’m happy being four!”[10]

It seems like Christia= ns often would rather be four than one. One group who believes this way will pit itself against another group who believes another way, then both groups will subdivide because of intern= al disagreements, and before you know it, it takes over four pages in the Hot Springs Yellow Pages just to list the various churches in the city. The result of disunity is that the= Body of Christ is chopped up into so many little pieces that no piece can be as strong on its own, and the Kingdom suffers.

Dr. Haddon Robinson po= ints out that back around the turn of the nineteenth century, there was a huge plague of locusts in the Great Plains of the United States. In a matter of days, the locusts s= wept over Nebraska, Io= wa, and Kansas, devastating crops, leaving fields bare of vegetation, and toppling local economies. Dr. Robinson said, “Locusts don’t have a king to get them organized. They don’t have a draft boar= d to call them into ranks. By inst= inct, the locust knows it has to be in community with other locusts. When that occurs, they are able to topple kingdoms. The wisdom o= f the locust is the wisdom that tells us we must have community.”= [11]

The wisdom of Jesus is= that a church which is unified will be a church that is strong and effective and powerful in its witness. Like= a horde of locusts, we can move against the forces of evil and claim the community for Christ.

Unity does not mean unanimity. We will not always= have the same opinion; there will be differences of thought as we struggle to kn= ow and do God’s will. Our = unity comes from a fundamental agreement on our mission—to make disciples of Jesus Christ—and knowing what business we are really in—glorify= ing God.

Third, God is glorified by our joy. Our heavenly Father wants us to have a life that= is filled with blessings, full to overflowing with good. Jesus said he came that we might h= ave life abundantly. He told his disciples the secrets of the Kingdom of God so that his = joy might be in them and their joy might be full. In his great priestly prayer, he s= aid, “I speak these things in the = world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.”= [12] When we share the joy of Christ, we can enjoy a wonderful freedo= m in the way we live. <= /span>

Several years ago I re= ad a very interesting little book called Fish! It was a business parable= about a group of downtrodden, disheartened employees at a big bank in Seattle who disco= vered a place where the employees truly love to work. It was a fish market a few blocks = from their bank. In an environment= many people would consider nasty, the men at the fish market were having such a = big time that they actually drew crowds to watch them handle the seafood in the= ir market. Their joy was contagious. Four practices ma= de the fish market a joyful place:

§intentionally choosing a positive attitude

§introducing playful elements into their everyday routine

§doing their best to make the customer feel important

§being fully present in their job each day.

The fishworkers’= “doing” was the same kind of fishmongering that happens in every seacoast town in t= he world. But their “being” was powerful and energetic and effective and fun!= [13]

Do you remember the qu= ote that was made into a country song a few years ago (most good quotes are): “Work like you don’t need the money; love like you’ve nev= er been hurt; dance like nobody’s watching; live like it’s heaven = on earth.”[14] That’s a good description of= joy, and by that joy, God is glorified. <= /span>Jesus prays for his disciples to live this way.&= nbsp;

Finally, God is glorified by our witness. Jesus prayed in the high priestly = prayer, “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. …As you, Father, 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.”[15] In fact, witness is the idea in the background of all the ways we glorify God.= If we believe, and others know we believe, we make a witness. If the community outside our churc= h sees a congregation that is unified and motivated to make a difference for God in the world, that’s a witness. If we live with the contagious joy of a disciple, the way Jesus intended, that makes a witness and draws people to Christ. In fact, any way and every way tha= t we can communicate the good news of God’s salvation—through proclamation, through discipleship, through hospitality, through missions in the community and abroad—we give glory to God. And that’s the business we’re in.

The last hard-line Com= munist leader of the Soviet Union was Leonid Brezhnev. He died in 1982. Vice-President George Bush (the fa= ther of our current President) was assigned to attend the funeral on behalf of t= he United States. He later reported seeing an amazing thing happen at the funeral of this Communist leader. The ceremony was strictly in accor= d with the atheistic beliefs of Communism. Everything was very militaristic and cold and hollow. There was plenty of Marxist rhetor= ic, but no prayers, no hymns, no mention of God whatsoever. At the very end of the funeral, Brezhnev’s wife stepped forward to the coffin for one last look at her husband’s body. Then, in front of dignitaries from all over the Soviet Union<= /st1:place> and the world, and millions of people watching on TV, she reached out and traced the sign of the cross on her husband’s chest. In that simple but profound act, she made a witness. The Gospel penetrated the walls of Communist ideology, and God was glorified.[16]

How about you? Is your faith making a witness in = the hostile territory of the world? Are you known as a disciple of Jesus Christ in your workplace, your school, your circle of friends, your community? <= /span>

Maybe you feel like yo= u need help achieving that level of witness in your life. Don’t feel alone. The first step toward success is t= he acknowledgment of our need. J= ohann Sebastian Bach, arguably the greatest composer of all time, whose music has touched the hearts of generations for God, always began his compositions wi= th a two-word prayer. On his origi= nal manuscripts, you can see the letters “J. J.” That stands for “Jesu juvet,” the Latin words= for “Jesus, help.” At= the end of each Bach manuscript are three more letters that he always put there: “S. D. G.”= , which stands for “Sola Deo Gloria.” In Latin it means “To God al= one be the glory.”

If you want to glorify= God with your life today, start by asking Jesus to help you. You cannot do it on your own. But this life is what God wants fo= r you; in fact, Jesus has been praying for this—that you would know life in = all its abundance. Ask for help, = and have faith in him to provide it. Ask for help, and work for unity in the Body. Ask for help, and receive the joy.= Your life will be your witness, an= d God will be glorified. That’= ;s the business we’re in. Amen= !