This is Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition, and we're so glad you joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to connect you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times through verse-by-verse teaching of His Word. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others on air and online. Before we kick off today's teaching, we want to let you know that you can stay in the know about what's happening at Connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates. When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email to inspire you with God's Word each week. So sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Let me give you a second thing Jesus is not speaking about when He talks about unity all being one. He's not speaking about uniformity. Uniformity isn't the same as unity. Uniformity is where we all agree on everything.
Is that going to happen? I had Walter Martin tell me one time, you get two people who agree on everything, one of them isn't thinking. We're not going to agree on every point of doctrine, every little idea, every opinion. You will have the same that my opinion is. We will all like the same version of the Bible. Every song, we're all going to agree on every policy.
That's not what it's speaking about. It's sort of like a family. Would you say the people in your family are different?
If you think so, raise your hand for a minute. How many of you have kids? How many have children?
Okay, yeah. How many have more than one child? How many have more than two children? How many of you have more than four children? A few of you, wow. Okay, so let me ask you a question. Are your kids different from each other? Right?
You're going, oh yeah. One's loud and one's quiet. One's a night person, one's a morning person. Different personalities. My wife and I are very different, and we have different opinions about a lot of things. And it's just hard to always live with somebody who's right all the time.
Let me just say that for the record. Usually I look at her and go, yeah, she was right. We have very different opinions, but we're together on the essentials. In the Christian family, there are disagreements over non-essentials. We don't all agree here probably when the rapture is going to take place. We don't all agree on tribulation events. We don't probably all agree on the second coming or the gifts of the Spirit, those kind of things. They're important, but they're secondary. They're not the essentials. We don't get saved by them. So he's not speaking about organizational unity.
He's not speaking about uniformity. Let me throw this in the mix. Let's just say we could get great Christian minds together under one roof.
Let's say it were possible to put in one room for a conference. Let's go back to the fourth century. Let's get Saint Augustine of Hippo. Let's bring him in the room. And then let's move up to the 10th century and get Bernard of Clairvaux. Let's bring him into the mix. Let's move to the 16th century, and we'll get John Calvin in the room.
That'll be interesting. We'll move to the 17th century. We'll throw in John Wesley and George Whitefield together in the same room. We'll move to the 19th century, get Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Victorian English preacher.
We'll get Dwight L. Moody from Chicago. We'll move to the modern era, get Billy Graham in the room. There will be trouble in that room. They are not going to agree on lots of things, but at the very core beneath all of the other stuff they disagree on, there's going to be a unity there. They're going to realize we're saved by the same blood of the same Savior, by God's grace, not by our works, and the very essentials of who Jesus is, who God is, etc., there will be an agreement on. Now, here's Jesus saying, Father, I'm praying that the same kind of unity that we have, that they would have. On one hand, this prayer has already been answered. It's done.
It's done. We have that unity. On the other hand, there's an element where we're part of the answer, and we have to engage to be part of the answer, and I want to show that to you because this is vital. Otherwise, you're going to go around your whole life going, oh, man, we're just never together where there's no unity in the church, okay? Get over that.
I want to help you do that. Turn to Galatians chapter three. I cheated. I had a marker there, so I just flipped to it, but easy to find, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians.
There it is. Look at verse 26. Now, before you read there, let me just give you a little background.
It'll help. When Paul is writing this, the world was very divided. They were divided, male and female, male and female. Huge division sociologically at that time. There was a division between slaves and those who were free. Even in Judaism, there were divisions.
In the temple itself, there were division between male and female, Jew and Gentile, etc. Then Jesus comes along and saves people who are free, people who are slaves, men, women, Jew, and Gentile. And so this is what Paul writes. Verse 26, for you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Get that?
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Here it is. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all what?
Say it again. You are all what? You are one in Christ Jesus. That's unity. Whether you know it or not, whether you feel it or not, whether you feel like it or not, we're one. Saved by the same person, by the same act, the finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary.
It's a finished work. Unity, therefore, in this sense, isn't something we produce. It already exists. Now, there are many scriptures about this.
Don't have time to turn to them. Here's just another one that's in my mind. In Ephesians chapter 4, this is what Paul says, for there is one body, one Spirit, one faith, one Lord, one baptism. That's unity. That's unity.
Now, that's one hand. On one hand, what Jesus prayed for is done. It's accomplished in the finished work of Christ and the establishment by the Holy Spirit of the church that came in the book of Acts. But on the other hand, unity is something we have to be a part of and work toward because the same scripture, Ephesians 4, that says there's one Spirit, one faith, one Lord, one Spirit, one faith, one Lord, one baptism. It says this, we should endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So there's part of the process that we have to be engaged in and try to work towards for unity to be maintained. The fact of unity is one thing. The experience of it is another thing.
Is that right? You may be one with another brother or sister, but you don't experience unity. Sort of like a married couple.
When they come to the altar and they say vows, they essentially are what? One flesh. The two shall become one flesh.
Done deal. You're one. You're one unit. You're Mr. and Mrs. But there must be a commitment in that marriage toward oneness, open communication, bearing their soul, sharing their heart, spending time together, working at the marriage. Because I've seen a lot of married couples, though they are one, they would never know it.
Nor would anyone else. That unity must therefore be maintained and worked at by the people who are involved. Now go back with me to John chapter 17 and look at verse 21. This is the result of that unity.
You want to see how good it is and what it'll produce? Verse 21. That they may all be one as you Father are in me and I in you. That they also may be one in us.
Here's the part. That the world may believe that you sent me. That the world may believe that you sent me.
You know what that tells me? Our unity proves the authenticity of what we preach. We live our lives before very watchful eyes. You know, the world will give you a pass if you are into a lot of different things, but once you say, I follow Jesus, I'm a Christian, I'm a born-again Christian, they look at you different. They treat you different. They scrutinize you differently.
All eyes are on you. And one of the things they wonder about, one of the things, is can that born-again Christian that I work with get along with others who make the same claim? And when they see all the fights and all the divisions that are in many churches, they think, I don't need that. I can get that out of soap opera watching television.
So that the world may know that you sent me. Our unity proves the authenticity of what we preach. An old Puritan named Thomas Manton once said, division in the church breeds atheism in the world. It doesn't account for it all, but it certainly helps it.
Division in the church breeds atheism in the world. I read a story about, it's probably a story that happened a hundred years ago. I didn't read it a hundred years ago, but I read it a while back, and I think it happened about a hundred years ago.
And there were more mental institutions in our country than there are now. And this one man visited a mental institution where he noticed that his friend, who was a guard who was supervising 100 patients, he saw that there's one guard, there's 100 patients. And he got a little nervous and he said to his friend, does that ever bother you? You're watching a hundred. Do you ever worry that they're going to get their heads together and like beat you up and escape something like that?
The guy said, no. The very reason they're here is they can't get their heads together and work cooperatively together. And I read that and that was so indicting, you might say. In light of what I'm reading here and in light of what I just said by way of illustration, to preach the gospel without unity is insanity. The world picks up on that very quickly. But Jesus said, the world will know that you sent me.
You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig, Weekend Edition. Before we return to Skip's teaching, if you want to understand something, it's important to examine its foundations. That's why studying the book of Genesis is so vital to understanding the rest of the Bible. In Skip Heitzig's book, You Can Understand the Book of Genesis, he takes you on a fascinating journey to where it all began. From Adam and Eve and the fall of man to the birth of the nation of Israel. So you can understand the amazing story of God's love and our redemption in Christ. We'll send you a copy if you can understand the book of Genesis, as thanks for your gift of $50 or more to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. Now here's how to do it practically. When you have difficulty getting along with another person, keep it simple.
Keep it simple. You should go try to reconcile. But even more basic than that, the solution when there is disunity is for you to get close to Jesus and for that other person to get close to Jesus. If you get closer to the Lord and I get closer to the Lord, we're going to find ourselves closer to each other.
And that's seen easily by an illustration. And I'm going to use Jesse right up here who's on his little cell phone. Jesse, come on up here for a minute.
I didn't mean to catch you off guard. I know you're reading your Bible on your iPhone. I know you are.
No condemnation. Just stand right there. Stand right there. So I haven't seen Jesse all week. I've known him since he was born, but I haven't seen him all week.
So here we are. You can see that there's a distance between us, right? But I want to get closer to Jesus and so does Jesse. And let's just picture that the pulpit is Jesus. So I'm going to take a few steps up to get closer to Jesus.
And I find myself suddenly, as I'm getting closer to Jesus, also getting closer to somebody else. Who's that? Jesse. So here we are. Love this guy.
And thanks, Jesse. There's unity between us. So in simple illustration, I don't want to make it simplistic, but it is simple that if you make it all about Jesus and I make it all about Jesus, we're going to find that's our common ground. It makes it a lot easier to get along. That's the whole concept of what would Jesus do?
Get close to His heart and you're going to find that a lot of those differences will melt away. So the scope of the prayer is for believers. The substance of the prayer is for present unity.
There's another part of the request, though, not just for something in the present, but I mentioned something in the future. Future glory. Look at verse 24. Verse 24. Father, I desire that they also, whom you gave me, may be with me where I am. Where's Jesus going? Heaven. To the Father's house, as He called it. To the Father's right hand in glory. That they may behold My glory, which you have given Me, for you loved Me before the foundation of the world.
You know what's precious to me about what I just read? It's so often we as Christians speak about how great heaven's going to be. We can't wait to get there, especially you get older and older. I was with a man this week, George Beverly Shea.
He's 102 years old, 102 and a half. He's there and he's on the cusp and he knows it. And we often talk, soon I'm going to be in glory. We have a desire for heaven. We have a desire to see Jesus, but do you realize Jesus has a desire to see you in heaven?
That's His request. I pray that they whom you have given Me will be with Me. That's amazing to me.
That's staggering to me. That's on the heart of Jesus to pray for us being with Him forever. Now you might ask a question at this point. You say, what does that have to do with unity? Well, it might sound like Jesus is just sort of throwing up a request. I want them all to be one. Yes, I want them all to be one. Yes, I want them all to be one, because He elaborates on that and He goes, oh, and by the way, I want to see them in heaven.
But think of it this way. Heaven has everything to do with unity. It's when Christians cease to think about their ultimate hangout, when they cease to think about heaven. That's when all the troubles happen here on earth. That's when we become very divisive with each other and very self-centered.
It's all about me and my world and my needs. But when we think about it this way, we're going to be together forever in heaven. There's going to be an eternal unity between us.
Maybe based upon that, we can try at least to get along now. So I see it as something very complimentary one to another, and we praise for future glory. And what a glorious day that will be when in the presence of God, all of the division, all of the differences will be gone because of Him. Now, let's close off the chapter. Look at the last two verses. This is now the sum of the prayer. We've seen the scope.
We've seen the substance. This is the sum of it. And Jesus says to sum it all up, there's two things. It's what my followers know, and it's what they will do.
That's what I do. That's how He sums it up. Look at verse 25. This is what we know. O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you sent me. Right here and in other places, Jesus insists that people in this world don't know the truth. Do you realize that 97 percent of everything that is knowable is available today? Everything in history of the world that has ever been knowable, 97 percent of it is available now. With all that knowledge, there's one thing the world doesn't know. Truth.
God. How to get to heaven. But Jesus insists they don't know it. The world doesn't know it, but my followers do.
Now we do have time. I want you to turn to one more Scripture. Promises of the last one. 1 John chapter 5. It's almost toward the back of the book. 1 John chapter 5. If you don't want to turn to it, God bless you.
I'll read it to you anyway. 1 John chapter 5. Now this is written by the same guy, John, years later. 1 John chapter 5 verse 19. Listen to verse 19. We know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
Stop right there. That is an arrogant statement if it weren't true. It is true, so it's not arrogant. It is true. But if that wasn't true, how arrogant is that?
How arrogant is that? Nobody knows the truth, but we do. The world is lying under the sway of the evil one, the wicked one, but we know God.
That's true. Jesus said that's true. He insisted the world doesn't know you, but I know you and they know that you've sent me. John continues, and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true.
In His Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life. So that's what we know. We know the truth. We know God.
We know life. And now in summing it all up, he says this is what they're to do. This is part of his prayer. Verse 26. And I have declared to them your name and will declare it, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.
Now just as we close, think about those words. Because you know truth, because you know God, because you know God's love, because God's love is in you, therefore here's what you do. Love. You love. You show love.
The Bible says the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts. Do you know that we have an unlimited capacity to love because God has shed His love in our hearts and He has given us an ability to love. So since you know truth and you know God and God's love is in your hearts, you'll love. You'll love God. You'll love His truth. You'll love His kids. You'll love the world because Jesus died for them.
It's part of the constitution that sums up the prayer of Jesus for His church. Love. Have you discovered it's easier to love people theoretically than actually? Oh yeah, I love people. I love.
I love. Really, I love people. It's like Linus in the Peanuts cartoon. There's a Peanuts cartoon and Linus said, I love the world.
It's just the people I can't stand. Ever feel like that? I mentioned I was with George Beverly Shay this week. He's 102 and a half and he's so gracious. I was with him in his living room and he was talking and I was asking him all these questions about different people. Never once did he or do I ever remember him ever saying anything bad about someone.
He's a sweet, generous, kind man who's almost in heaven. And as he was talking about Dr. Billy Graham, he's been with him now over 60 years and he always says, I met Billy. He was 21. I was 31. I was 10 years older than Billy and I still am. And I started to remember as he was talking, I started to remember about a covenant that Billy Graham and George Beverly Shay and Cliff Barrows made years ago called the Modesto Manifesto. Early in their preaching career when it was taking off and they were in Northern California, they got alone. They made a covenant with each other and part of the covenant said, we will never, part of our deal, we promise to never speak ill about another brother or sister. Deal? Deal.
Modesto Manifesto. And I saw that played out in this generous, kind old man's life. So at the end of our meeting together, we said, well Bev, is there anything that we could pray for?
You figure a guy who's 102, there's going to be aches and pains. Yeah, I got a whole list of things you can pray for. So is there anything we can pray for?
Is what he said. He paused and he went, hmm. And then he goes, let's just rejoice. You know, no prayer requests. Let's just rejoice. And he was so thankful.
And I thought that's how I want to go. I want that grace worked in me. I want that kind of attitude toward God's people and God's work in me.
We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Pastor Skip's insightful book, You Can Understand the Book of Genesis, to help you better understand the story of God's great love and His amazing plan for our redemption. To request your copy of You Can Understand the Book of Genesis, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to check out the many resources available at connectwithskip.com slash store. We'll see you next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's Word, here on Connect with Skip Heitzig weekend edition. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on His Word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.
