One:

Jesus Prays:
- For all who believe in Jesus through the work of the preaching of the apostles.
- How many people is this today? 33% of the people in the world claim Christianity. This is 2.42 billion people. In 117 of 194 countries, the majority of the citizens in the country claim to be Christian.

Jesus prays for these believers “that they all may be one.” This is a plain statement that Jesus wanted unity among those who claimed to follow Him. He even explains the nature of this unity. He says the nature of the unity He wants is that people who name His name are one in the Father and the Son and that people who say they are Christians would have unity like the Father and the Son.

What is the reality regarding unity among those who say they are Christians? In 2001, there were 33,830 different denominations. Here is the number of people in largest of these groups: 1.3 billion Catholics, 937 million Protestants, 273 million Eastern Orthodox, 110 million Anglican (Church of England or Episcopal Church), and 80 million Oriental Orthodox. The rest are scattered throughout very small groups. Clearly, that is not the unity that Jesus wanted.

Why did Jesus want such a high level of unity? What is the goal of unity? Jesus explains it to us plainly. His first reason is “that the world may believe that God sent Him” (vss. 21,23). The problem is that when people see all the division in a faith that is supposed to be from God, they say to themselves, “something is wrong with this stuff.”

His second reason is “that the world may know that you have loved them as You have loved me” (vs 23). Jesus plainly states that the ability of the world to believe that the Father loved the people of the world the same way the Father loves the Son is bound up in the unity demonstrated by those who confess the name of Jesus. The less unity among professing Christians, the less the world is willing to believe the love for them described in John 3:16 is real.

So, we have to ask, “Is this level of Unity Possible?” The answer must be, YES, since Jesus prayed for it. The great question is how can this unity be achieved? The answer is found in the number of unity. Most people are not taught this in school arithmetic anymore, but another name for the number one (1) is “Unity.”

The New Testament has a great many “ones.” Let’s start with Ephesians 4:1-6: “one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, one Father who is above all, through us and in us all.”

Here are other ones in the New Testament. Pay attention to the common theme express in them all:

One Seed - Galatians 3:16 - Christ
One Redeemer - Revelation 5:9 - Christ
One Savior - Titus 1:4 - Christ
One Mediator - 1 Timothy 2:5 - Christ
One High Priest - Hebrews 4:14 - Christ
One Sacrifice - Hebrews 10:12 - Christ
One Covenant - Matthew 26:28 - Of Christ’s blood
One Lawgiver - James 4:14 - Christ
One Gospel - Galatians 1:6-12 - Given by Christ
One Way - Matthew 7:14 - Christ
One Name - Acts 11:26 - Christian
One Foundation - 1 Corinthians 3:11 - Christ
One Head - Colossians 1:18 - Christ

Can you see that Christ is the center of Unity?