April 22, 2022 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ted N.C. Wilson, President, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Speakers: Ted Wilson, Erton Kohler, Paul Douglas
Ted Wilson (TW): Greetings, friends, from the world headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Silver Spring, Maryland. I am here once again with my fellow executive officers, Erton Kohler, executive secretary, and Paul Douglas, chief financial officer and treasurer. We are here today to talk about “Unity in the Body of Christ,” our Church’s 14th Fundamental Belief.
Erton Kohler (EK): Unity among believers is so important that it begins with Christ Himself. The night before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed earnestly to His Father in heaven: “Keep through Your name those whom You have given Me; that they may be one as We are” John 17:11.
Paul Douglas (PD): And in His prayer that night, Jesus not only prayed for His disciples; He prayed for you and for me. As recorded in John 17:20 and 21, Jesus said, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. “
TW: It is through the unity of Christ’s believers that the world will believe the good news that we have to share. But what does this unity look like, and how may it be achieved? Commenting on these verses in John 17, Ellen White wrote, “What a wonderful statement! The unity that exists between Christ and His disciples does not destroy the personality of either. In mind, in purpose, in character, they are one, but not in person. By partaking of the Spirit of God, conforming to the law of God, man becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ brings His disciples into a living union with Himself and with the Father. Through the working of the Holy Spirit upon the human mind, man is made complete in Christ Jesus. Unity with Christ establishes a bond of unity with one another. This unity is the most convincing proof to the world of the majesty and virtue of Christ, and of His power to take away sin” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 1148.
EK: As we think about the disciples of Christ, we know they had different backgrounds, different personalities, different ways of doing things—and sometimes they fought over who would be the greatest. Jesus knew all of this, and He had much bigger plans for them—plans for them to reach the world for Him! But He knew they could never accomplish this mission until they were fully united. That’s why He prayed for unity among them.
TW: In Acts 2:1 we see a beautiful answer to Christ’s prayer just a few weeks later—“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” “With one accord” means more than just being physically together in the same place; it means they were together in heart, mind, and soul. How was it that these same disciples, who not long before, had been arguing over who would be the greatest, were now so united in message, mission, and heart?
PD: In the book The Acts of the Apostles, Ellen White tells us, “As the disciples waited for the fulfillment of the promise, they humbled their hearts in true repentance and confessed their unbelief” (p. 36). She goes on to say, “The disciples prayed with intense earnestness for a fitness to . . . speak words that would lead sinners to Christ. Putting away all differences, all desire for the supremacy, they came close together in Christian fellowship” (p. 37).
EK: “These days of preparation were days of deep heart searching,” she writes. “The disciples felt their spiritual need and cried to the Lord for the holy unction that was to fit them for the work of soul saving. . . . They were weighted with the burden of the salvation of souls. They realized that the gospel was to be carried to the world, and they claimed the power that Christ had promised” (p. 37).
TW: Answering the question of how this transformation could take place, we read, “Under the training of Christ the disciples had been led to feel their need of the Spirit. Under the Spirit’s teaching they received the final qualification, and went forth to their lifework. . . . No longer were they a collection of independent units or discordant, conflicting elements. No longer were their hopes set on worldly greatness. They were of ‘one accord,’ ‘of one heart and of one soul.’ . . . Christ filled their thoughts; the advancement of His kingdom was their aim. In mind and character they had become like their Master, and men ‘took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.'” Acts of the Apostles, p. 45.
PD: This is the kind of unity we need in the Church today. Although we are many–more than 22 million members, from hundreds of different nationalities and culture groups, speaking a myriad of languages, God calls us to come together, united in Him, with one message, and one mission–to save as many as possible through His power. Our 14th Fundamental Belief explains it like this:
“The church is one body with many members, called from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
EK: In Christ we are a new creation; distinctions of race, culture, learning, and nationality, and differences between high and low, rich and poor, male and female, must not be divisive among us.
TW: We are all equal in Christ, who by one Spirit has bonded us into one fellowship with Him and with one another; we are to serve and be served without partiality or reservation.
PD: Through the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures we share the same faith and hope, and reach out in one witness to all. This unity has its source in the oneness of the triune God, who has adopted us as His children.”
EK: If you would like to learn more about this beautiful fundamental belief, we invite you to visit the website shown at the bottom of the screen [www.adventist.org/unity-in-the-body-of-christ/].
TW: Brothers and sisters, today Christ is seeking to unite us as one in Him–one in message, one in mission, one in purpose. Time is short. As we follow the steps of those early disciples, setting aside our own desires and ambitions, and yielding all to Christ, praying earnestly for the outpouring of His Holy Spirit, He will come and unite us in a powerful way, giving us the wisdom, strength, and courage to proclaim the everlasting gospel to the entire world. And then the end will come. I invite you to join us in prayer just now.
Prayer: [The 3 officers].
EK: Our Heavenly Father. We are human beings with challenging scenes in many different needs. But we need to be united to you and one another.
PD: And Father, we thank you for the privilege that you have invited us to join you in your mission to save this world. Thank you for the privilege that you have given to us and grant us your spirit that we may be united as one.
TW: And Lord, may your spirit truly make us each individually, more and more like Jesus, so that your mission can be accomplished in a powerful way because people will see Jesus in us. Thank you for hearing us, and thank you for uniting us in your love, in your character, and in your mission. We pray all of these things in the powerful name of the one who prayed in John 17 that we might be in unity, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.