City Life Starter

The Word

²⁰ “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.

Exegesis

Jesus exemplifies the perfect way to plant a church. He has a mission and a vision. The mission was what He had to accomplish on earth, which was the ministry to preach the good news and to equip His disciples to take over when He left. This mission came with a focus on keeping His Father’s will, a goal that He never swayed from, and to train the next set of leaders to take over when He left. This came with a great prayer to the Father to keep the disciples in the world and to protect them from the evil one.

The vision was for the gospel message to be spread beyond His disciples. For every nation and every tongue to sing the praises of what Jesus would accomplish on the Cross for their sins. Jesus lived to put a vision into the heart of the disciples to carry the Gospel message to the ends of the Earth.

This should be the mission and vision for every church on earth. We are to have a mission to equip and train the next generation and to give them a vision to reach the world for Jesus. This thinking includes, not only a prayer for those we are raising up in Christ, but also to what the church can do 100 years from now. This is what Every Nation is putting into the minds of our members, to think long term, not just short term. A vision is important.

Jesus also makes a statement that future believers will be one just as Him and the Father are one. That we may be in them(the Father and the Son). How do we accomplish this? When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and His blood cleanses us, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us and makes our bodies as a Temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). It is through the Holy Spirit, not anything on our doing, that invites us to be a part of the amazing Trinity. We get to experience God in ways that only believers can experience. A closeness, a relationship, and a friendship that transcends anything we will have on this earth.

Prayer

Father, help us to have a vision for the future, to see Your kingdom spread throughout the world and to reach every nation and every campus for Your glory. Let us accomplish this by a mission to train and equip new believers and bring them into this awesome vision. Let us continuously dwell in Your presence with the help of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, Amen.