Part of my ministry in Malaysia is serving at Bethel Church, a lovely, welcoming church in Sungai Petani. On Friday, I had the opportunity to do a sermon in front of the church body. This was my first time doing something like this, but I was still so excited. God gave me the idea to preach on unity, which is so fitting for the community I am a part of here in Malaysia.
Bethel Church is headed by Pastor Thomas and his wife, Cassori. They both reflect the character of Jesus so well. After a conversation with PT, I realized that he also has a huge heart for unity. Even the church’s worship band is named Unity.
Here’s an outline of the message I gave:
U N I T Y
When we know God and allow him to give us his love, grace, and wisdom, we are able to know him and give to other people like Jesus did on Earth.
The Unity of the Holy Trinity
•Jesus obeyed God just as we should obey the Holy Spirit; He wanted what the Lord wanted. He showed this with his great sacrifice: he went through physical and mental pain in order to complete God’s plan and to show His love for us. We should line up our desires with the Lord’s just as Jesus did. In order to unite with the Lord, we must give up our own wants if they are not what God wants for us.
•John 17:4-5 “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
Jesus is unified with God in glory. Jesus honored his relationship with God by obeying him and trusting his plan and promises. We can honor God by trusting and obeying what he tells us to do.
Our Unity with God
In order to be unified as the church, we must be unified and aligned with God just as Jesus was.
God’s desire for us:
•Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign . Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a sin, and shall call him Immanuel.” God loves us so much that he sent Jesus down to die for our sins so that we can be with him forever. Jesus is called Immanuel, which means “God with you.” His time on Earth shows how the Lord wants to be spend time and be united with us.
God wants us to be with Him just as Jesus is with Him. We can also learn how God wants us to be with others by looking at how Jesus was with others in the Bible.
Jesus’ Unity with Others While on Earth
•John 17:6-12;20-26
“(6) I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. (7) Now they know that everything you have given me is from you. (8) For I have given them the word that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they believed that you sent me. (9) I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. (10) All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one. (11) While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me…
“(20) I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, (21) 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. (22) The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, (23) 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. (24) Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. (25) O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. (26) I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
In this scripture, we can see that Jesus loves his community…
- with humility. He points everything back to God. (v.7)
- with generosity. He wants to share God’s love with people. (v.8)
- with prayer for them. (v.9)
- with a desire for unity between everyone in the church, not just with him and others. (v.20-21)
- with purpose. The purpose of unity with others is for people to see God’s love in the community. The purpose is for the unity Jess had with people on Earth to lead people to being together in heaven. (v.23-34)
- with Agape love. He shows God’s love to people so that they may know God. (v.26)
We should use how Jesus was with others as a guide for how we treat relationships and friendships.
Our Unity with One Another
It is important that we go after a true relationship with God, but God also wants us to have friendships and relationships with one another.
God’s desire for us:
•Genesis 2:18 “Then the Lord God said, “it is not good that the man should be alone; I will give him a helper fit for him.” God created Eve so that Adam would not be alone. God knew from the beginning that He wanted us to be together, not alone.
When we are unified in God’s love and not divided, we are able to build each other up and keep each other from staying upset. We are able to direct one another back to God’s love and faith in hard times.
•Ephesians 4:11-16
“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
Without Christ, we have nothing. We can not fake unity. With out Christ, communities, friendships, and relationships will fall apart or have big problems. It is only if we pursue God’s love that we will be able to pursue one another without bad intentions and with true love.
-According to the Bible, God wants us to honor and love each other in a genuine, real way.
•Romans 12:9-10
“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”
We can not love each other genuinely if we do not love God genuinely. We can not love each other how God loves us if we don’t accept God’s love for us. We can not honor one another if we do not honor God first.
How to Live in Unity
- pursue unity with God
- learn from Jesus’ character
- honor God and one another
•In 1 John 4:7-13, the Bible talks about how we are united in God’s love.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us and his love is perfected in us.”
Remember that we are united as God’s people in his love for us. We should let God love us and spread his Agape love to others.
