One. It could be the loneliest number (I hope I got that stuck in your head), but for the next few minutes, will you let me call to your memory a time when ONE was not lonely? It could be the time when you stood before the church, justice, pastor, and friends and got married - two become one, and one is not lonely.
What if it was a time when your team accomplished what it could not unless the whole team pulled together as one? The big game, the project launch, the deadline that mattered, and the whole team did its part for the success - one, not lonely at all. Maybe it was the time you all came together as a family, to care for someone, to celebrate the life and legacy of someone - one family.
Rewind the history tape and join me in a prayer meeting that took place about 2000 years ago. You might have heard of the leader, his name is Jesus, and he is talking to his Father. His prayer covers his friends, it's loving and kind between his Father and him, and then it shifts. Not in tone but in the subject. He is now praying for you and for me.
"Father, make them one (not the loneliest number kind of one) as we are one."
In this prayer, Jesus identifies something about his relationship with his Father, the nature of people, and the expansion of his mission.
"Just like you and I, Father, are one - will you take that same oneness, that unity, and give it to them?"
How were Jesus and the Father one?
In love - it seems obvious. Jesus and the Father loved each other deeply.
In trust - Jesus trusted the Father with his own life. In the end, he committed his spirit into his Father's hands.
In mission - at his baptism, Jesus was commissioned by his Father. When someone is COM-missioned, they leave with A MISSION. From this point on, Jesus made comments like these:
“I only do what my Father wants done.
I only speak what my Father wants said.
I glorify my Father.
I show you my Father.
Me and my Father, we are one.
Not my will (Father), but yours be done.”
There are more, but you get the point. When Jesus said, "make them one like we are one," I believe he was saying, "Father, we love each other, we trust each other, and we have, TOGETHER AS ONE accomplished a mission."
The copy of a copy degrades. We know this. The original is always better to make copies from if you want crisp and clear copies. It is the nature of copies and the nature of people. Jesus, in his prayer, prays for you and me. The copies of the copies, the disciples of the disciples, spread over 2000 years of history. How do this copy (me) and that copy (you) not fade over time? Say it with me now - ONE! When we live in unity, together with the same love the Father and Jesus had, the same trust the Father and Jesus had, and the same MISSION the Father and Jesus had, we become ONE. (Not the lonely kind.)
The expansion of his mission depends on it, friends. Jesus finished his prayer with, "Father, make them one as we are one - so that the world will know I am sent from you." The immeasurable importance of ONE is the revealing of Jesus to the world.
Today, we can embrace the ONE in the love of Jesus and the Father. We can strive for the trust of Jesus and the Father. But unless we embrace the mission of Jesus and the Father, we will not be ONE like they were ONE.
The world around us only knows that WE are fond of Jesus because we are not one in LOVE, TRUST, and MISSION; when we are - the world will know that HE is the ONE sent from the Father.
One does not have to be the loneliest number - it can be the most powerful number.
If you want to find out more about how to be equipped for the mission of Jesus, the one he and the Father shared, contact us at www.4-gen.net.