Discussion Questions
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What does Jesus teach us about unity through His prayer for His disciples in John 17? How would you define unity in the church? Do you think it is possible to accomplish unity in the church? If so, how? If not, why not?
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I believe there is unity and disunity among all groups of people. There are those in the church that are very much in line with the teachings of Jesus but there will always be those that must go against the grain.
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Jesus taught that His followers needed to be unified in their common faith about Jesus and His mission of redemption and restoration for humanity so that the kingdom of God will be established. Many may think that unity can only be achieved through exact acceptance of all doctrines of the Bible by all the followers of Christ. That would seem to care an element of truth but because men have a sin nature to contend with, that will probably not be achieved until we have put of this corrupt body of sin, as Paul said. But I believe that unity of mission or purpose can be achieved if we all focus on expanding God’s kingdom while we are here on earth through sharing the Gospel with the unsaved world. Yes, we will have doctrinal differences about church life but we should all agree that reaching people for God should take precedence over how we take communion, are baptized or other debatable issues.
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We see the Unity between Jesus and the Father and how He completed the tasks. His prayer centres on the theme unity between the believers. Unity within the church is seen through power of Holy Spirit uniting everyone together in the fruits of spirit. Unity come from being cited in the Spirit
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How does Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane reveal His utter dependence on the Father? What can you learn from this prayer and how can you apply it to your life during times of suffering?
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It’s in Jesus prayer that we know that Jesus is dependent on God the Father. We know that because of the words of Jesus.
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Jesus knew and acknowledged that it is the Father that sent Him to earth to accomplish His purpose, equipped Him to do it, and would see that His purpose would be accomplished. Jesus repeatedly gave God the glory and honored Him in His prayer. Even through our suffering, as difficult as it may be, we should ask the Lord for strength to pray as Jesus had in the Garden of Gethsemane.
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Jesus did not wish to go through the agony of crucifixion, but He was willing to do the will of the Father. When we pray, we need to submit to the Father’s will, even when it is different from our own will. We should make prayer a priority in our lives, just like Jesus did. He asked His disciples to pray, but they fell asleep.
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He surrendered His fate completely to the Father as He showed pure obedience and complete submission. Whatever challenge or temptation that we face, we can ask God to give us strength.
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It was a very intimate prayer. It helped me understand that prayer should be just that, intimate and not just words that hold no true meaning.