John 5:19-30
Unity is a quality after which every believer is encouraged
to strive. The body of Christ is most
effective when it functions in unity. Unfortunately,
division is much more common than unity.
The problem that most of us have is that we expect others to unite with
us because from our perspective we are right.
As long as our standard for right and wrong remains ourselves; we will
experience disunity. The secret to
attaining unity with one another is for all of us to seek unity with Christ. We must take our eyes off ourselves and plant
them firmly on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The reason that Jesus was so effective in His ministry on earth was that
He was perfectly united with the Father.
Jesus has just healed a man who had been lame for almost four decades. The Jews were complaining that He had done
this miracle on the Sabbath and told the man to carry his bed. Jesus responded by claiming to be working in
concert with the Father which caused the Jews to become even more angry with
Him. His response to these attacks was
to demonstrate His unity with the Father.
There are at least three ways in which Jesus was perfectly united with
the Father. Each of these ways
represents areas that we too must strive for unity with Jesus. The true unity of the body Christ will be proportionate
to our being united with Jesus in these three areas.
JESUS WAS UNITED WITH THE FATHER’S WILL: Jesus did not do
anything that was not the Father’s will.
He did not take upon Himself the authority to decide what He would
do. He only did that which He observed
the Father doing. Jesus had perfect
knowledge of the Father and He was imitated the Father perfectly. God has created us as dependent beings. We were never intended to live independent
lives. We need God in order to be able
to live our lives effectively. Jesus set
the standard that all of us are called to follow. He knew God perfectly and followed Him
constantly. The Father is not hiding
from us. Just as He loves the Son, He
loves us and wants to be in a close relationship with each of us. The reason that Jesus healed the lame man and
told Him to carry his bed was because it was exactly what the Father wanted Him
to do. This was only the very beginning
of what the Father would accomplish through the Son. Jesus was giving notice that He would follow
the Father’s will no matter what the cost and no matter what others might
think. His accomplishments would be
marvelous because they originated with the Father. Can we say the same thing about the things
that we are doing? Are our actions and
choices based on the will of the Father and the example of the Son? Or are we just doing what is right in our own
eyes? If we will all follow the Father’s
will perfectly; we will be in perfect unity with one another.
JESUS WAS UNITED WITH THE FATHER’S WORK: The Father has a
purpose to accomplish in this world. He
is at work to bring about the transformation of mankind for His honor and
glory. Sin has separated us from the
Father and placed all of us under the sentence of death. The work of God in the world today is to give
eternal life to us who are dead in our sin.
He wants all men to repent and trust in His provision of salvation through
the sacrifice of Jesus. The reason that
Jesus became a man was to accomplish the work that the Father is doing in the
world. Right now, this world is divided
into two groups of people: those who believe and those who reject Jesus. Those two groups do not look very different
from one another right now. Sinful men
who want nothing to do with Christ prosper and exercise power on the
earth. Injustice is all around us. This reality causes many people to question
whether God is at work in this world at all.
We can rest assured that He is.
Many people are being called into a personal relationship with Him through
faith in Christ. Those who reject Christ
may not seem to be suffering but God is at work and He will bring perfect and
complete justice to every person on this planet. God’s work is to be reconciled with men
through faith and to judge those who do not believe. Jesus was fully engaged in this work and He
calls each one of us to join Him in this eternal work. Our unity with Him and one another must be
surrounded by our engagement in the Father’s work in the world. If we are working to promote our own agendas
and not His; disunity and division will be the inevitable result.
JESUS WAS UNITED WITH THE FATHER’S WORD: The will of God and
the work of God are always accomplished through the Word of God. The means by which the dead will rise from the
dead is by the Word of God. Jesus will
speak and the graves of the world will suddenly be empty. When we believe the Word of God we are granted
eternal life. All men will be resurrected. Those who have been united with Christ
through faith and therefore lived in accordance with the Father’s will are
promised to be resurrected to eternal life.
Those who followed their own evil wills and rejected Christ will be resurrected
to judgment. The question is: what have
we done with the Word of God? Have we
rejected it or have we followed it? The
Word of God has the power to change our lives and give us eternal life. God’s Word will one day defeat death. At the Word of Jesus the dead will rise. Whether we rise to eternal life in unity with
the Father or to eternal judgment apart from the Father depends on what we do
with the Word of God. Our lives must not
focus on our own words. The Father calls
us to join the Son in following His Word.
Only as we do so, will we be united with Him and one another.
APPLICATION: The will of God must be the reigning desire of
our hearts. The work of God must be the
focus of our activities. The Word of God
must be the object of our faith and the source of our hope. We must seek to be united to one another
through our unity with Jesus.
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