Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Welcome to a brand new series called One. We are so excited about this series because we’re going to spend the next four weeks celebrating what God has done and is doing in our church. We’ll be exploring where God wants to take us in the future. And we’ll be coming together as one to worship Him and give thanks to Him. We believe that every good gift that our church has been given is because of God’s grace to us, and we are going to praise Him and thank Him for it.

We’re going to start in Philippians 1 today. Let’s pray and then we’ll get things going.

Philippians 1, starting in verse 27. The Bible says, “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.” (Philippians 1:27-28a, NIV)

The Apostle Paul makes a direct correlation between unity and the gospel itself. Unity and the gospel are inextricably linked. He tells us to, “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel”

If you and I are going to live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, then we must stand firm in one spirit. We fight together as one man for the gospel. In other words, if we’re serious about the gospel, then our hearts must beat with unity. Our hearts must beat with unity because Jesus’ heart beats with unity.

Listen to this prayer from Jesus in John 17. “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:20b-23, NIV)

John 17 is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the Bible. And in this prayer, Jesus prays passionately for the unity of His followers. He prayed for everyone who would come to believe in Him through the gospel. You know what that means? It means that Jesus prayed specifically and directly for us. He prayed for you. He prayed for me. He prayed specifically for the Amelia Church of Christ. And his prayer was unity. In fact, He prayed for complete unity.

Now, it’s important to realize what this doesn’t mean. Because, on the surface, complete unity sounds like a completely unattainable goal in any church.

Here’s what we have to understand. Complete unity doesn’t always mean complete agreement. We can disagree on certain things and still be unified. Complete unity means that, on the essential issues, we are in lockstep.

This week on my blog, I talked about the release of the newest revision to the New International Version of the Bible. It’s the best selling Bible translation in the world. This is the first revision of this translation since 1984.

I read an interview with Douglas Moo, who chaired the Committee on Bible Translation. Here’s what he said about the translation process.

“There are, of course challenges. We don’t always agree and, because we are all passionate about our work and the text, our disagreements can be strong. But in the midst of these debates, there is at base a sense of unity around our common passion and common task.”

That doesn’t just apply to Bible translators. That translates well into the life of the church. We don’t all agree on every issue, and we don’t have to. We have a unity around our common passion and common task. We are unified on the essentials.

We are unified in the doctrine that we preach and teach. We are unified that the Bible is the Word of God. It is inspired of God and it is without error. We are unified that Jesus is the only way that we can be saved. We are unified that it is by His blood and his grace alone that we can be saved. We are unified that we are saved by grace, though faith, at baptism. There is a unity there.

Complete unity also means that there is a unity of vision and mission. Go back to John 17. This is what Jesus prayed for. “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me…”

He didn’t just pray for our unity, but He told us why unity is so essential. Our unity is essential so that the world may believe. So we can show the world who Jesus is.

We need to understand that this is our mission. And we need to understand that division can destroy that mission. We can either be the answer to Jesus’ prayer by our unity…or we can be the blockade for Jesus’ prayer by our division.

On matters of opinion, there will always be varied opinions. And that’s ok. In fact, it’s normal. But on matters of vision and mission, there must be unity. It’s what Jesus passionately prayed for.

The mission of Jesus is for the world to know Him. And He accomplishes that mission through the unity of His church. It’s what He prayed in John 17. And that is why our church is unified on mission.

Our vision is connecting, growing, and serving. And we are bringing everything we do and everything we are into unity with that vision. We are all about meeting people who don’t know Jesus at all, and then connecting them in a growing relationship with Jesus where they can serve Him in their lives. Connecting. Growing. Serving.

Back to John 17. Jesus prayed for His church to be unified, “so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:21b-23, NIV)

The mission is all about connecting people into a growing relationship with Jesus.

Remember the rescue at the Chilean mine a few weeks ago? This event mesmerized the entire world. People in Iran and North Korea were watching this. That’s pretty amazing to think about.

People all over the globe were captivated by this rescue. We all knew that these 33 men were trapped over 2,000 feet below the surface. We knew that, not only were they trapped, but they would die if there was not an all out effort to save them. No expense was spared. There was nothing that was off limits to save these miners. Whatever the cost, these miners were going to be rescued. And the whole world celebrated as each miner emerged from underground.

Why is it that we can get so passionate about doing whatever it takes to rescue 33 men from a mine, but we are not willing to go to any extreme to rescue countless people from an eternity in hell? I’m not trying to minimize the rescue. These miners were in danger of losing their lives, and I celebrated each rescue. But what we have to come to grips with is that people without Jesus are in much greater danger. They are in danger of not just losing their lives, but losing their eternities. The stakes are much, much higher.

People who are living without Jesus are in imminent danger, just like the miners were. And they must be rescued at any cost, just like the miners were.

A lot of people will say, “Amen” to things like that until they realize that “at any cost” means that it will actually cost them something. Then, all of a sudden, they’re not so sure.

There should be nothing we aren’t willing to do to rescue someone who is lost. We should be willing to change anything. Give up anything. Do anything if it means rescue for those who are lost.

That’s what Jesus was all about. Look at what He said in Luke 19. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10, NIV)

Jesus’ entire mission was a rescue mission. And Jesus stopped at nothing. He held nothing back. This rescue cost Him His life. He was willing to give up anything and everything, and His church is called to follow suit.

As long as the Word of God is preached faithfully and truthfully, everything and anything else is up for grabs. Jesus gave up His life. We can give up our music or our building or our comfort zone.

The minute that any of that becomes more important than the mission, it becomes an idol.

You want to know something? I don’t always like everything we do here. I know that sounds weird coming from me, but it’s true. But I recognize that everything we do…down to the smallest detail…is done to accomplish the vision of connecting people to Jesus. And if something that I don’t personally like paves the path for someone else to meet Jesus for the first time, then I promise you this…I’ll give up my preference every single time. I’ll give it up from now until Jesus comes back if it means more people will be in the Kingdom.

Rescue at any cost. That’s what we’re about at ACC.

Let’s go back to the Scripture we started with today. In Philippians 1, Paul said, “I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27b, NIV)

That’s the picture of unity of vision and mission that God has for His church. All of us “contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.”

If that brings to mind something like a fight, you’re on the right track. The church is embroiled in a fight. Ralph Erskine said, “Faith, without trouble or fighting, is a suspicious faith; for true faith is a fighting, wrestling faith.”

The church is in the middle of a fight. The only problem is a lot of churches pick the wrong fight.

A lot of churches choose to fight amongst themselves. Instead of fighting against the darkness of our world…instead of fighting against the stranglehold that sin has on people…instead of fighting against Satan and his forces…a lot of churches choose to fight amongst themselves. They choose to argue over non-essential issues. They choose to bring division into the body of Christ.

That’s not the fight that the Apostle Paul is writing about in Philippians. We fight for the gospel. We contend as one man for the faith of the gospel.

In other words, we fight together for what is essential…and absolutely nothing is essential except the gospel. We might disagree over this and that, but we will fight together for the gospel.

Do you remember the big brawl between the Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals earlier this year? I was actually at that game. It was a wild scene, let me tell you.

The whole fight was sparked by some pretty stupid, immature comments by Brandon Phillips. But even though I’m pretty sure all his teammates disagreed with what he said (or at least how he said it), they were a team. They were unified on the field. And they fought as a team.

Now, was the entire fight stupid? Yeah, it was. Should grown men be more mature than this? Of course they should. But don’t miss the bigger point here. What was essential was the team, and every man was going to fight for the team.

When it comes to our team, what is essential is the gospel. The mission. The vision. And we will contend as one man for it. We will fight together for it.

Back to Philippians 1. Paul wrote, “I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.” (Philippians 1:27b-28a, NIV)

We will be opposed in this fight. It wouldn’t be a fight if there were no opposition, would it? But when there is unity, there is no fear. When the church of Jesus is completely unified, like He prayed for, there is nothing that can take us down.

We will be opposed. Our church is facing opposition right now. We are facing the opposition of a down economy. Our budget is tight. It is keeping us from doing some of the things that we would love to be able to do. We were spared for a long time, but we are finally feeling the tough economy in our church. It is opposing us.

We are being opposed by a deteriorating facility. Our building is getting some age on it, and it’s showing. We don’t know what God is going to lead us to do about it. Right now, it’s something that is opposing us more and more everyday.

We are being opposed by attacks within our own community. And before you think this is unique to us, you need to understand this. EVERY church is attacked in the community if they take a strong stand for the gospel. Traditional churches are attacked. Contemporary churches are attacked. Old churches are attacked. Young churches are attacked. It doesn’t matter. If a church faithfully and boldly stands for Jesus and preaches His Word, attacks are coming. I get emails from people I’ve never met attacking me and our church.

We are opposed because we are the church. The Bible didn’t say that we wouldn’t face opposition. In fact, it says just the opposite. But when we have a unified vision fueled by the power of God, we can meet any opposition with no fear.

Isaiah 54 says, “…no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me," declares the LORD.” (Isaiah 54:17, NIV)

The Bible doesn’t promise that the weapon won’t be forged against us. It pretty much promises that it will…but that weapon will not prevail.

We will refute the tongue of all our accusers. We will stand against all opposition. This is how the Lord will vindicate us. When we are unified on the gospel and the vision that He has given us, He will take up the fight for us. There is no fear when you know that God is taking up the fight for us, not because He is on our side, but because we are on His side.

Let’s go back to Philippians one more time. Paul opens these verses in Philippians with two simple words: “whatever happens.”

“Whatever happens” – we will maintain a unified vision. Whatever comes our way. Whatever is said about us. Whatever happens to us. We will never waver on the gospel. We will never sell out the vision. We will remain unified on the mission that God has given us.

Here’s what I hope God can say about us as a church. Joshua 22:3 says, “For a long time now—to this very day—you have not deserted your brothers but have carried out the mission the LORD your God gave you.” (Joshua 22:3, NIV)

Our church has been around for a long time. It started with an audacious dream when it was planted in the gym at the old Amelia High School. And there was plenty of opposition. There were plenty of people who thought it was crazy. There were far more obstacles than opportunities.

But they had a vision. They knew the mission that God had laid on them…and they weren’t backing down. A lot of people in this room will be in heaven one day because they didn’t back down. A lot of you would have never come through the doors of a church, you would have never heard about Jesus, you would have never been baptized into Him, if they had backed down.

That’s our heritage. That’s the mantle that has been given us to carry. Fearless vision. Fighting like a dog for the mission. And we are beginning to see our church gain traction like never before. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of what God wants to do through us.

We haven’t seen anything yet. God has been positioning us for something much bigger. And we’re just now beginning to get a glimpse of what our future is going to be. What it’s going to be is awesome.

It’s going to take complete unity to get there. But we are on the way and we’re gaining steam. We are gaining traction to be a force for Jesus that is going to knock the gates of hell right off their hinges.

Are you in?

Mike Edmisten

Tags: John 17, One, Philippians 1, unity, vision