Jesus Prayed for Unity

Pastor Ryan Nunez of Palm Valley Church

The Prayer of Jesus

I am not stepping out on a limb here by saying that our culture today is very divided. One cannot scroll through their social media, open a news article, turn on a TV, or even just enter the breakroom at work and not notice how divided we are by our beliefs and convictions.

As if this were not bad enough, Christians lead the way in this area. We are literally known by our distinctions: Baptist, Methodist, Anglican, Catholic, and on and on. (Actually, over 30,000 denominational distinctions exist.)

Division breaks the heart of God.

Here is how I know this. At the end of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples, he took some time to pray for them. Check out part of His prayer...

John 17:20-21

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that you have sent Me."

Jesus prayed for unity among his believers. He then connected this unity to the effective spread of the Gospel. Jesus wants His followers, His Body, His church to be in unity.

Here are a couple quick thoughts on this:

Unity is not uniformity. Diversity in the body of Christ is healthy (the body has many parts). The goal here is not to be one church in structure, but one church in heart.
Unity is not formed by solving our differences. Incredibly intelligent theologians have for years sat down to hash out the doctrinal issues without arriving at consensus. A very influential Christian leader once told me that he believed the theologians would eventually become perfectly unified in doctrine—the day after Christ’s return.
Relational reconciliation is the pathway to unity. Unity is formed by individuals sitting around a table building a relationship. We find our similarities and build from the unity we have together as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Does this sound too good to be true? Could something like this really take hold? I am here to tell you it can because it is happening.

You have an opportunity to get a taste of the Christian unity that is forming here in the West Valley of Phoenix at the Good Friday Breakfast where hundreds of Christians from different churches and denominations come together, around tables, to celebrate what we all share in common—the risen Christ!

Pastor Ryan Nunez

Lead Pastor

Palm Valley Church

Join us for the West Valley Good Friday Breakfast!

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Invite your friends: Reserve a table for your church, BRING your pastor and your friends (especially those that don't know Jesus) to come with you.

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