Transcendent Unity

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 63:1-4
• Hymn — Psalm 63 (to the tune of When I Survey the Wondrous Cross)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — Romans 8:1-2
• Scripture Reading — Joshua 8:30-35
• Hymn — Teach Me, O Lord, Your Way of Truth
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — The Church's One Foundation
• Sermon
• Hymn — Ye Holy Angels Bright
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: Transcendent Unity

Scripture: John 17:20-26

I. Transcendent Unity Is Dependent on God's Word

A. The prayer of John 17 is not only for the disciples present with Jesus, but for all who will believe through the apostolic word

1. John 17:20 — "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word"
2. Knowledge of God comes only through the incarnate Son — John 1:18

B. The Son is sent by the Father to reveal the Father's name and character

1. John 17:25-26 — Jesus makes the Father known; the disciples know the Father only through the Son
2. Moses desired to see God's face but could only see his glory passing by (Exodus 33); full revelation comes through Christ
3. Jesus is called "Apostle" (sent one) in Hebrews 3:1, sent by the Father to make God known

C. There is a cascading, apostolic unity: Father → Son → Apostles → Church

1. John 20:21 — "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you"
2. To reject the apostolic word is to reject the Son who sends it; John 17:20 says belief is in their word, not merely a word that passes through them
3. Disunity in Corinth arose from fracturing this apostolic unity — 1 Corinthians 1 (factions following Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or Christ)
4. Contemporary "red-letter Christian" rejection of Paul represents the same error: to deny the apostles' word is to deny the Son's word and thus the Father

II. Transcendent Unity Is Demonstrated by God's Love

A. Christ nearly equates Oneness with love throughout the prayer

1. John 17:21 — "that they may all be in us"; John 17:23 — "I in them and you in me"
2. Scripture consistently links unity and love: husband and wife become one in covenant love; the Triune God is unified in love

B. The early Greek fathers (e.g., Irenaeus, Athanasius) used the language of deification to strain toward describing this union

1. Not an ontological transformation — we do not become divine in nature
2. Rather, we are drawn so near to the Triune fellowship of love that our relationship with the Father is described in the same terms as the Son's eternal fellowship with the Father
3. Analogous to sacramental language: the sign is spoken of as the thing signified to convey closeness and union

C. This Triune love shared with the church is to be visibly manifested to the world

1. Tertullian records the world saying of early Christians: "See how they love one another"
2. Charles Taylor's concept of the "immanent frame" — the modern secular world operates as though nothing transcends the here and now; the church's love is to break through that closed Dome
3. John 17:23 — the church is to become perfectly one; the standard is no less than the perfect union of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

D. The call to maturity in unity

1. The word "perfectly" carries the sense of maturity — the church must grow into a fully matured, loving body
2. Immature bickering among believers soils the name of the Triune God and repels the watching world
3. Growth in holiness must coincide with growth in unity and love for one another

III. Transcendent Unity Is Destined for God's Glory

A. John 17:24 — Jesus desires that his people be with him to see his glory

1. The glory in view is his exalted glory received through his finished work, resurrection, and ascension
2. This is the ground of the doctrine of the beatific vision — Matthew 5:8: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"
3. Since God is spirit and invisible, the beatific vision is the sight of God beaming forth through the face of the incarnate God-man, Jesus Christ
4. John Owen: "God in his immense essence is invisible unto our corporal eyes and will be so to eternity… the blessed and blessing sight which we shall have of God will always be in the face of Jesus Christ"

B. Christ's glory is inseparable from the Father's love for the Son

1. John 17:24 — "because you loved me before the foundation of the world"
2. The doctrine of divine simplicity: God's attributes are never divided; his glory is always a loving, holy, righteous glory
3. If God were a single-person God, there could be no loving communion within his being; the eternal love shared within the Trinity is the very ground of his glory

C. Contemplating the glory of Christ is the principal exercise of faith (John Owen)

1. Owen: "Did we abound in this duty… our life in walking before God would be more sweet and pleasant… and death itself would be most welcome"
2. Owen on his deathbed: "Oh brother, the long-wished-for day is come at last, in which I shall see that glory in another manner than I have ever done or was capable of doing in this world"
3. The church presently tastes this glory by bearing one another's burdens, sharing in the one baptism and one faith, united to the one head, Jesus Christ
4. We await the day when we will eat and drink anew before the face of God in Jesus Christ