The unity of the Spirit.

The unity of the Spirit

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.

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.

In the epistles, the Lord reveals mysteries to the church.
He instructs us.

He also expresses His will for us.
He exhorts us and commands us.

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.

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

EPH 4:1-3

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

In verses 4-6, Paul identifies the seven essential elements of this unity.

EPH 4:4-6

Three of
the seven elements
are the three persons of the Godhead!!

Two are linked with the Spirit: the
one body, and the one hope of our calling.

Two elements are linked with the Lord Jesus: one faith, and one baptism.

The Father is over all. He is sovereign over all things.

In this way,
the Father is over
the Lord Jesus Christ.

1CO 15:22-28

The Father is also over the Holy Spirit.

The Father is also through all.
He operates through the Spirit.

The Father is also in all. He is in Christ, and Christ is in us.

EPH 1:22-23

The one body is
the body of Christ.

ROM 12:4-5

We saw in EPH 1:23 that the church is His body.

That unity of the one body is forged by the baptism by the Spirit.

Every believer in Christ is baptized into Christ by means of the Holy Spirit.

“baptized into Christ” means to be placed into Christ and identified with Christ.