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May God grant us His grace and peace. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, why are you here? What brings you to this church on Sunday mornings? What are you here for? The Lord Jesus gets at the heart of this question in this beautiful prayer that He offered right before being arrested and crucified. And St. John wrote it down for us in chapter 17 of his gospel.
Christ says, “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours, and all mine are yours, and yours are mine.” And he makes it very clear: “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you would take them out of the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.” And he does not only pray this for the 12 disciples, but he prays this for all believers even to this day. And one of the main petitions is that they would all be one, that they would all dwell together in unity.
This is what you were sanctified for. The Lord has set you apart from this world, just as he set apart Old Testament Israel from the rest of the world, to be a holy nation and priesthood. You who belong to the Father and the Son have been set apart and sanctified. And that means that you now belong to this holy fellowship, to the unity of the one true faith, the one baptism, the one spirit, the one Lord, the one God and Father. This is the Holy Christian Church. And make no mistake about it, there is only one Holy Christian Church. Everyone who hears the voice of the shepherd Jesus in faith belongs to that church.
Everyone who has come to know and believe Jesus, who was sent by the Father, and who has made him known and revealed him, everyone who has believed this word of the apostles written down for us in the Scriptures. So there is only one true church. And yet, the Lord Jesus prays for us that we would be one, that we would be one in the Father and the Son. And St. Paul likewise admonishes us and says, to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Jesus says, “I and them and you and me, that they may be made perfect in one.”
So we have this prayer for unity. And I think that really corresponds to our experience in this world, right? We don’t just see one church. Instead, we see a myriad of different denominations and confessions. And we Lutherans insist so much on the pure doctrine that we drive the wedge even further. Can’t we just all get along? Can’t we just love each other and not be so divisive? I’m sure that some of you have wondered about this before.
But here’s the problem. True unity is not just an outward union. It doesn’t just mean to simply belong to one institution or to just all go to communion together. True unity and true church fellowship is the unity of the spirit, the being like-minded of one mind. There is only one true faith, and so it does actually matter what you believe, and we should care about different doctrines. We’re not saying that only in the Lutheran Church there are true Christians, but we cannot just pretend that different confessions of faith do not matter.
You see, it all comes down to the question of what you believe it means when Jesus says all these things that He says here in chapter 17: that the Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world, that He sent the Son into the world, and that He declared God’s name and glorified the Father. He says, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
But what does it mean that the Father sent the Son? The implications of that are huge. Think about it. That implies the Holy Trinity. It also implies our complete fallenness in need of a Savior. It means that Jesus is truly God as he is the Son. That means that not only the human nature died on the cross, but God himself died on the cross. It also means that only in Jesus, only in Him, there is forgiveness of sins, not in any other merit, not in purgatory, not in any other satisfactions. It also means that if this man Jesus is truly God, then he is, in fact, present everywhere, right now. And he can give us his true body and blood in the bread and wine from the altar.
So you see, different denominations understand this sentence differently and have different conclusions. Some even say that it doesn’t matter at all what you think it means. But for the sake of God’s truth and for the sake of pure doctrine, and because we can’t simply pretend that it’s okay to have different beliefs and faiths, we have to have schisms and splits in the church. It seems contradictory, but it’s nevertheless true. Because there is only one true church, we have to insist on the one true faith and have to separate ourselves from different and other churches. There’s no giving in when it comes to doctrine. This is the unity of the mind: believing the same, being of one mind, the unity of one faith and doctrine.
And a little on the side maybe, but you parents, you want your children also to belong to this unity of faith, that they are members and that they belong to the Church of Christ. And not just now; you want them to love the Lord Jesus throughout their whole lives. And finally, you want to see them again in the resurrection. And so yesterday we had this workshop here about home devotions and teaching the faith in the home, and it was a great joy to see so many of the young parents there discussing this calling that the Lord gives to us.
You parents, you love your children and you want salvation for them. So keep up the good work. Gather around the word of Christ every day, even if you’re exhausted and even if it’s hard at times. And most importantly, let us lift up our children to God in prayer. And this is also the calling of you who mourn the absence of your children from church; trust them to the Lord. If anyone is saved in the end, it is solely by the gift and grace of our dear God. He alone saves.
Jesus says, “I have manifested your name to the men who you have given me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word.” So it is his work alone, and he can even turn hearts.
Now, did you notice then that when talking about the unity of doctrine, we can’t help but also talk about love? Unity in doctrine does not only come from love, but it also results in love. You and I are called to this brotherly love in the church, to overlook each other’s imperfections and to cover them with love. We humans usually do it the other way around. At least we are tempted to it. We tend to not care so much about doctrine, let everyone have his own opinion, right? But when it comes to me personally, then I am immediately offended. But that is upside down. We should much more care about the name and glory of our Lord Jesus and His teaching, but not take ourselves to be so important.
So you are not only called to the unity of the Spirit, but also to the unity of peace, the unity of brotherly love and affection. St. Paul writes, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” Love is a sacrifice.
And truth be told, especially in our wealthy America, it is probably much easier to give someone $500 than to sacrifice time to bear someone else’s burden. Love is a sacrifice, even enduring one another at times. In the bond of peace, we are called to readily forgive as love covers a multitude of sins—that is, the sins of someone else. This is the love that originates in the Holy Trinity Himself. This love the Son made known to us when he was sent into the world, when he gave his life for the world, forgiving all of our sins.
Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore, from Psalm 133. I was wondering what would be a good example for this love from biblical times, and I had to think of David and Jonathan. These two men wonderfully exemplify the unity of doctrine and love.
Picture them: two very different guys. David, the lowly shepherd, but secretly being anointed as king. And then Jonathan, the son of the current king, always torn between his obligations as obedient son and then also his love toward David. But even though he kept dishonoring his father, he clearly sided with David. He knew that the Lord was on David’s side. He was of one mind with David, agreeing on the one true faith and doctrine. He knew and believed that the spirit of the Lord was with David and not with his father Saul.
He went into the woods to David and strengthened his hand in the Lord. As a true Christian friend, he assures his brother of God’s love: “You are being persecuted by the king, but take heart. The Lord is with you. He has not forsaken you. He will help you. He will even send his promised Messiah, through whom all your sins are forgiven,” he might have said.
The love between the two was so great that at Jonathan’s death, David exclaimed, “I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women.”
Behold how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity. This is why you’re here. This is what you’re here for. The Lord has called you to His fellowship. So it’s really not your choice. You have been called to this unity of the one true faith. And this unity is the Lord’s gift for us. This unity originates in the Trinity Himself as the Father and the Son are one in eternity.
Let us be eager to keep this unity both in doctrine and love. And in all our shortcomings and past sins, let us be assured that our loving and dear Savior ascended into heaven and there keeps on interceding and praying for us at the right hand of the Father. This beautiful prayer from John chapter 17, from before his crucifixion, he continues to offer; he continues to intercede for us before the throne of God. He does not take us out of the world, and in the world we do have tribulation. But if our brother and God prays for us in heaven, what can the evil one do to us?
And now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep in God our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.