31 May 2015
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to John 17:20-23
John 17:20-23 (NIV)
20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for
those who will believe in me through their message,
21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you 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.
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they
may be one as we are one:
23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete
unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you
have loved me.
-- The
noted English architect Sir Christopher Wren was supervising the construction
of a magnificent cathedral in London
-- a journalist thought it would be interesting to interview some of the
workers, so he chose three of them at random and asked them this question,
"What are you doing?"
-- The
first replied, "I’m cutting stone for 10 shillings a day." -- The
next answered, "I’m putting in 10 hours a day on this job." -- But
the third said, "I’m helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London’s greatest
cathedrals."1
-- I've
been doing an awful lot of thinking about work recently -- I've had a lot of
conversations with coworkers about their jobs and their thoughts on work --
I've been reading several books and blogs on productivity in the workplace --
and I've been around a lot of young people who are graduating from high school
and college and getting ready to enter the job market -- so the idea of work and
careers has been on my mind a lot
-- and I've
noticed a common theme coming from all of these sources on the subject of work
-- I actually heard it summed up best at a graduation party for my cousins last
weekend -- "Oh, go and have fun now while you're young and you don't have
a full-time job -- because once you start working, you'll never get to have fun
again"
-- the
message that is being given out right now is that work is drudgery and should
be avoided at all costs -- and the focus of all these productivity books and
blogs about life-hacks is that if you can increase your productivity, you can
do more work in less time -- which means you can minimize the amount of actual
work you have to do, so you can get to what is truly important in life -- having
fun
-- the
whole message they're sending out is that work is not fun, but is only a
necessary means to an end -- and I see that, in my own life and in the lives of
those who work with me -- I had one young man come up to me this week and say,
"I'm just not happy -- I'm the definition of disgruntled" -- and that
concerned me -- not only because I see him at the start of his career looking
ahead to years of work in his chosen field -- not only because I see this same
idea in my own life -- but because it is a direct affront to God's will and
God's plan for our lives
-- contrary
to popular opinion, God did not create work as a punishment for man -- in fact,
before the Fall -- when Adam and Eve lived with God in perfect harmony -- one
with Him and in perfect accord with Him -- God placed them in the Garden of
Eden and gave them a job -- He told them to take care of His creation -- to
tend the garden and to be His stewards, so that He might receive glory from
their actions
-- so, in
other words, work was originally conceived by God as the means by which we were
to bring Him glory -- by living our lives for Him -- by letting our everyday
acts of service be consecrated to Him -- our work was to bring Him glory
-- but this
is not what we see today -- this is not how most of us feel about work or about
school today -- so what went wrong?
II. Working to be Whole
-- I was
thinking about this when I turned to this passage in John during my devotions
this week -- and a novel thought entered my mind -- a different understanding
and meaning for this passage
-- let me
show you what I'm talking about -- look back with me at verse 20
John 17:20-23 (NIV)
20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for
those who will believe in me through their message,
21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you 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.
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they
may be one as we are one:
23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete
unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you
have loved me.
-- in this
prayer of Jesus on the night He was betrayed, Jesus prayed for all of His
disciples -- both those who were gathered with Him that night and for us, who
would come to believe because of their witness
-- and the
focus of this prayer is on unity -- Jesus prays that we may be one, as He and
the Father are one
-- and then
down in verse 23 He prays that we might be brought to complete unity to let the
world know that the Father had sent Jesus
-- now when
we see these verses taught, we are typically given the interpretation that
Jesus wants us to be in one accord with each other -- united together -- one
mind -- one body -- one soul -- to be the church, undivided in message and in
bearing
-- and I
think that is true -- I certainly do agree that Jesus wanted us to be one with
each other -- we have even taken that thought as our vision for Koinonia Church
-- to do life together -- to be in fellowship and unity and accord with each
other
-- but I
think Jesus' meaning may go a little deeper than that -- if you think about it,
how does a group of people coming together as one demonstrate to the world that
Jesus had been sent from the Father? -- we have groups of people who come
together in unity all the time, but what does that show? -- how does that
change what anyone else believes?
-- for
instance, back in 1997, the Promise Keepers organization organized a gathering
of one million men at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. -- the purpose was
to show the country a group of men united under the Lordship of Jesus Christ --
coming together in unity and in one accord -- regardless of denomination or
race or anything else -- living out these verses that we just read
-- but what
impact did this gathering have on the country? -- did this gathering -- this
demonstration of unity -- result in a change in the hearts and minds and
beliefs of the rest of the country? -- did it cause them to all of a sudden
realize that Jesus had come from the Father for them? -- no, I don't think it
did -- so was Jesus wrong in His prayer when He prayed that we would be one so
that the world would know that He had come?
-- of
course not, but perhaps we have misunderstood what He meant -- or not taken it
to a deeper level than what we read on the surface
-- when you
think about Jesus being one with the Father, what does that mean? -- it means
He lived in perfect harmony with God, right? -- He was one with God -- everything
He did was in perfect accord with the Father's will -- He was not divided in
His actions or thoughts or attitudes, but He was in God and one with God in all
things, right?
-- so when
Jesus prays to the Father and asks that we might be one with Him -- that we
might be united so that the world might see Jesus through us -- could He
perhaps not only be referring to us being united as a group, but as individuals
-- whole and unified in our thoughts, attitudes, and actions?
-- here's
what came to me this week as I pondered these verses in light of my recent
conversations about the drudgery of work -- I think our problem with work today
stems from the fact we live divided lives -- we have become a bipolar people --
separated along two planes -- the secular and the sacred -- the everyday,
normal life and the spiritual life -- and because of this, our minds and our
actions and our thoughts are divided
-- we have
unintentionally become the people that outsiders say live one way at church but
live another way during the week -- and because we are living this way, we
believe that what we do outside of church is less important, less holy, less
sacred, less desirable than what we do in church -- thus, work becomes a burden
-- work becomes drudgery -- something we have to do rather than something we
get to do
-- when
Jesus talked about us being one as He is one, I think He may also have been
referring to the way we live our individual lives -- I think He may have been
praying that we would be one with the Father in all our ways
-- when
Jesus lived here on earth, everything He did was pleasing to His Father --
there was no separation between the secular and the sacred -- Jesus was fully
man, and yet even as He went about His days here on earth as a man, He lived a
perfect, sinless life -- His actions were always consistent and always holy --
as He prepared and ate His meals, as He worked in His father's carpentry shop,
as He traveled from place to place -- doing what we would call mundane works --
still He was in perfect accord with the Father -- still He was one with the
Father
--
everything He did was an offering to God and brought Him glory -- Jesus was no
less holy when He was with His disciples in the boat fishing or when He was
making a yoke for oxen than when He was teaching in the temple about the
kingdom of God
-- and that
is what He demands of us -- to be one with the Father at all times -- one with
Him and one in Him -- so that all we do is a holy offering to Him -- whether we
are talking about the mundane tasks of life or the gathering with other
Christians for worship
-- this is
what I want you to get -- if we are one in Christ -- He in us and us in Him --
then every moment of every day is a sacred moment -- every moment is a moment
for God to be glorified through our actions -- even our moments at work and at
school
-- think
about what Jesus meant when He said in John 8:29, "I always do the things
that please the Father" -- He wasn't just talking about His healings and
His miracles and His teachings -- He wasn't just talking about the spiritual
things He was doing -- He was talking about every aspect of His human life,
including what we would term work
-- as Tozer
put it, we are to "lift every act up into a living kingdom and turn the
whole life into a sacrament"2 -- we are to view the mundane and
the secular -- our jobs and our work and our school -- as holy offerings to
God, pleasing in His sight
-- to be
united in this way means to be united in our whole life -- our body, our mind,
and our soul -- to be united in all aspects of our lives and in all the acts
that we do -- no separation of the secular and the spiritual -- but one life
lived for God and with God and through God
-- you
might be thinking, "Yes, but how?"
-- the difference
comes down to motive -- as Jesus carved out yokes in his father's carpentry
shop, how did He view His work? -- as just another task of drudgery until the
day was over? -- no, certainly not -- I am certain Jesus used His skills and
His talents to make the best yoke possible, and when He was finished, He
offered it up to the Father as a gift -- He viewed it as giving the Father His
very best
-- we
should do the same as we go to work and to school -- every moment of every day
we should consider our actions and remember the point of our work
-- when God
walked with Adam in the Garden during the cool of the day, what do you think
they talked about? -- what do you think Adam said to God? -- I bet they talked
about what Adam had done -- I can just see Adam pointing over to a stand of
trees and saying, "See there, God? -- I pruned those branches for You -- I
pruned those trees so they would be more productive -- I tried to do a good job
because I wanted You to be proud -- what do You think?"
-- that's the
attitude we should be taking all the time -- we should stop thinking of our
spiritual lives as occurring only when we are at church or doing churchy stuff
-- but start thinking about how we are pleasing God even when we do what we
consider mundane, secular tasks -- even when we are at work
-- on my
desk at work I have a scripture reference that I use to center me when I'm
having a particularly rough day -- Ephesians 6:7 -- "Serve wholeheartedly,
as if you were serving the Lord and not people" -- if your motive is to
bring glory to God -- if your motive is to sanctify the Lord in your heart
through your actions -- then you will never do another common act -- but all
you do will be good and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
-- I like
the way A.W. Tozer phrased it -- "For such a man, living itself will be
sacramental and the whole world a sanctuary"2
-- this is
what it means to be whole -- to be united -- to be holy in all that we do --
and I think that is closer to the heart of Jesus' prayer in this passage -- not
that we would just come together as a group of people with shared beliefs, but that
we might live our lives in such a way that others will see Him through us -- at
work -- at school -- at play -- as well as at church
III. CLOSING
-- let me
close by leaving you with this thought -- we are all familiar with the story of
the Last Supper -- of Jesus' final gathering with His disciples in the Upper
Room on the night that He was betrayed -- and, as you remember, on that night,
Jesus took upon Himself the role of a slave and got up and put a robe around
Himself and washed the feet of the disciples who were gathered at the table
with Him
-- that
moment is holy for us -- although some denominations may differ in what acts
they define as sacraments, everyone agrees that this was a sacred moment --
that the washing of the disciple's feet by Jesus was a moment of holiness and
grace
-- but, I
want you to consider this -- on that very night in Jerusalem, hundreds of
slaves in that city did the exact same thing in other rooms -- hundreds of
slaves got up and washed the feet of those gathered to share in that evening's
meal -- but yet we don't regard their actions as holy or sacred -- why?
-- it comes
down to motive -- it comes down to intent -- Jesus washed the feet of the
disciples -- a common, ordinary act of drudgery and service -- but He did so
with the intent to glorify the Father -- He did so with the intent to make this
a sacred moment
-- you can
do the same in your own life -- every moment can be a sacred moment -- every
moment at work or at school or at play can be a moment of holiness if it is
offered up to God -- if your intent and your motive at that moment is not to
just get the job done, but to do this act as an act of service and sacrifice to
your God
-- to turn
the secular sacred, we have to remember intentionality -- we have to be doing
these acts with the intention of bringing glory to God
-- A writer
for a great newspaper once visited India -- while there, he met a missionary
nurse who lived among the lepers and ministered to their needs -- he noticed
how tender and loving she was to these poor souls who were afflicted with this
horrible, contagious disease
-- Looking
at her in amazement, the reporter commented, "I would not wash their
wounds for a million dollars." -- She responded by saying, "Neither
would I, but I’d gladly do it for my Savior -- the only reward I am looking for
is His smile of approval."3
-- let me
close by asking you this -- Why are you living the way that you are? -- Why are
you working at your job all week long? -- Why do you do the things that you do
and say the things that you say? -- Do you do it for personal gain, for the
money, to climb the ladder of success? -- Is it an act of drudgery? -- a labor
you toil at until the work day is over? -- Or do you go about your job with the
mindset you are doing it all for the glory of God in Christ Jesus?3
-- let me
leave you with this thought from God's word -- Romans 12:1 taken from The
Message, the paraphrase by Eugene Peterson:
-- “So
here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary
life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and
place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best
thing you can do for him.”
-- let us
pray
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1 [Cited in sermon by Jerry Anselmi, "The Right Way to
Work," http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-right-way-to-work-jeffery-anselmi-sermon-on-christian-values-39212.asp?page=0]
2 A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of Holiness
3 Alan Smith, "God was a Carpenter," sermon on
Sermon Central [http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/god-was-a-carpenter-alan-smith-sermon-on-workplace-evangelism-49113.asp?page=0]
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