Perfected in Unity

Class Outline:

John Farley
Pastor Teacher
Sunday,
April 7, 2024

“That they may be perfected in unity.”

JOH 17:20-23

Jesus prays for all who will believe in Him through the word of the disciples: the church.
(Verses 20-26)

He asks for unity:
that they may all be one.

JOH 17:20-21

He prays for His church to be one in the same way that He and His Father are one!

This unity serves an evangelistic purpose.

We fulfill our mission by being perfected in unity.

This is our corporate witness to the world.  We are one body in Christ.

JOH 17:22-23

Glory is the demonstration of who God is.

We reveal what God is like by preserving the unity that He has established for us.

The New Testament epistles are the books that have been written directly to the church.

What do the epistles have to say to us about the subject of the unity of the church?

The unity of the church was created for us by the Lord.

We are not called to create the unity of the Body of Christ, the church.

But we ARE called to PRESERVE the unity of the body.

There is a negative aspect as well as a positive aspect to this.

We are called to take actions to nurture the unity, guard the unity.

We are also warned not to do anything that could disrupt or undermine that unity.

1.  What the Lord has done to establish our unity.

2.  How we are to preserve that unity. 

EPH 4:1-3

Notice in verse 3 that we are instructed to be diligent to preserve the unity.

Who established it? the Spirit.
It’s His unity.

The blueprint: the unity of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, JOH 17:22.

EPH 4:4-6

That unity is forged by the baptism by the Spirit.

Each believer of Christ is baptized - placed into Christ - by the Holy Spirit.