That They All May Be One: Father I Pray, as You and I Are One

By Graeme Cann

That They All May Be One is a pastor's reflection on the Gospel of John. It contains the complete text (New Living Translation) and many other passages of scripture, as well as commentary by the author. With its short chapters, it is designed to meet the needs of those who are time poor and can spend limited time reading, or for those who would favour using it as an aid to their devotional time each day.

It carries a challenge for present and future leaders of local churches and Christian organisations, and will also serve as a resource for those who are preparing sermons or leading Bible studies. It is a contemporary, thought provoking and challenging book with the capacity to be both confrontational and inspiring.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Feb 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9780228886976

Graeme Cann

Graeme Cann was an angry child, despite having a wonderful family. At 17 he had a profound spiritual experience which changed his life’s direction. In 1962 he married Julia and they joined the staff of The Leprosy Mission. For 16 years they helped pioneer ElKanah to both wounded people and those who ministered to them. The Christian Counseling Association of Australia was born out of a vision that Graeme and others had. Julia and Graeme have 4 children and 14 grandchildren.

Book preview

That They All May Be One

Father I Pray, as You and I Are One

Graeme Cann

That They All May Be One

Copyright © 2023 by Graeme Cann

All scripture used in this book is from the New Living Translation, Second Edition. Tyndale House Publishers. Carol Stream. Illinois.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Tellwell Talent

www.tellwell.ca

ISBN

978-0-2288-8696-9 (Hardcover)

978-0-2288-8695-2 (Paperback)

978-0-2288-8697-6 (eBook)

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

I pray Father,

that they will be one,

just as you and I are one.

– John 17:21

Acknowledgements

As I reflect on the number of people, environments, and experiences that together have impacted and shaped my life, and therefore by extension this book, the sum total is breathtaking. In the words of the Apostle John, I am profoundly grateful that God’s ‘unfailing love and faithfulness’ has come to me through Jesus Christ, and that in my lifetime I have been surrounded and supported by faithful and encouraging family and friends. At a crucial time in my life as a teenager, God ceased being a distant and intimidating deity and became my Father, and a lifetime source of unfailing love and faithfulness. With that new intimacy I now had with him came a deep appreciation that I had always been a recipient of his unfailing love and faithfulness through the people who loved me, influenced my life choices, and encouraged me to pursue my dreams. My mum and dad, Ethel and Stan, my brothers and sisters, the wonderful people of the Woolamai Methodist Church, and countless others whom I met during my days of training for ministry, and who ever since then, over more than six decades, have been to me conveyors of God’s unfailing love and faithfulness. I especially want to thank my wife of more than sixty years, Julia, for loving me, walking with me, accepting my flaws, and especially for being my untiring partner in life and ministry.

I also want to thank the members of our life group who have contributed valuable insights to this book.

Chapter One

Welcome

Your decision to read this book from cover to cover is a choice to read the Gospel of John (in the NLT version) from beginning to end. Throughout my journey as a follower of Jesus, no undertaking has benefited me as richly as the many times I have allowed the Apostle John to lead me through the compelling drama of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

One of the intriguing aspects of John’s gospel is that, although he has a specific reason for writing an account of Jesus’ life, he does not reveal what it is until almost the end of the book. After sharing some of the miracles Jesus performed; recording some of the conversations he had with people he met along the way; and recounting some of the harrowing details of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and death; and finally telling the story of his resurrection, John tells us,

The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous

signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book.

But these are written so that you may continue to

believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,

and that by believing in him you will have life by

the power of his name.

John 20:30-31

Even the most casual comparison of John’s gospel with the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke indicate that John made no effort to include every miracle or event that the other writers did, sometimes even giving priority to incidents that none of the others recorded. Turning water into wine at a wedding, engaging Nicodemus in a deep theological discussion, and interacting with a Samaritan woman before spending several days preaching in her village are just three of those inclusions unique to John’s gospel.

There are several questions that John attempts to answer. Who is Jesus? Where does he come from? What is his relationship to God? Why can we trust him? Is he the expected Messiah? In answering them, he uses three methodologies. First, he relies on the ancient Hebrew scripture, beginning his gospel the same way Genesis commences, with the words, ‘In the beginning’, referring to Jesus as the ‘creator of all things’, and using word pictures such as ‘Life,’ ‘Word,’ ‘Light,’ ‘Wind,’ and ‘Water’. His frequent use of the name ‘I AM’ is also significant.

Second, on several occasions he engages in providing a theological framework to our understanding of the nature and origin of Jesus. ‘The Word was with God and the Word was God’, ‘He is the true light, who gives light to everyone’, ‘The Word became human and made his home among us’, ‘We have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son’, ‘From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another’, and, ‘the law was given by Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ’.

The third methodology that John employs is the use of Jesus’ own words to answer all the big questions. ‘For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believed in him will not perish but have everlasting life’, ‘God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him’, ‘I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death to life’, and, ‘I am the way the truth and the life’.

Among all the amazing things John tells us Jesus said and did, there is one truth that inspires, challenges and encourages me more than any other: following Jesus is not a religious activity; it is an all-of-life relationship. At least once in every chapter of the gospel, and more than one hundred times in total, Jesus either refers to the relationship he has with the Father, or the relationship that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have with the believer. This significant body of teaching culminates with Jesus’ prayer to the Father for all those who would believe in him.

I have given them the glory you gave me,

so they may be one as we are one. I am in

them, and you are in me. May they experience

such perfect unity that the world will know that

you sent me and that you love them as much as

you love me.

John 17:22-23

As we commence this journey together, I want to encourage you to frequently return to the opening verses of John’s gospel:

In the beginning the Word already existed.

The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He existed in the beginning with God.

God created everything through him,

and nothing was created except through him.

The Word gave life to everything that was created,

and his life brought light to everyone.

The light shines in the darkness and

the darkness cannot extinguish it.

JOHN 1:1-5

Please read the scripture passage above again and again. It is the most relevant, powerful, and contemporary statement about God that you will read today, or, for that matter, any day! Choosing to call Jesus the Word, which in the Hebrew scriptures is a term used for God, John boldly announces that the Word existed before the world was created, and that he was with God, and was God, and that God created everything through him. This was his starting point, and throughout the rest of the gospel he intends to prove that it is the truth. Jesus has come. God is with us. He has saved his people from their sins, and throughout this gospel, John invites us to put our feet where Jesus put his. His life on earth was remarkable, and his death and resurrection opened a new door for those who believed in him. But we must not hurry over John’s description of Jesus:

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God and the Word was God.

Could there ever be a more expressive or accurate description of the one who came to be the light in the darkness, the friend of the outcasts, the healer of the sick, the deliverer of the demon-possessed, and the Saviour of sinners in the world that he himself created? But we know that he is much more than that, and John’s description is still perfect. He is the one God who has been exalted to the highest place in heaven, where he reigns over all creation. He is supreme over all rulers and powers on earth and in heaven, and he is the head of his body, the Church. The world that rejected him when ‘he became human’ still rejects him now, even with the evidence of his resurrection from the dead, and two thousand years of demonstrating his power and relevance in the lives of billions of people. The darkness into which he came as the light still envelops the hearts and minds of people, trapping them in fear and unbelief out of which frequently flows unbelievable selfishness, greed, hatred, injustice, and violence.

Today’s followers of Jesus make up the Church, the called-out ones redeemed by Christ, adopted by the Father, indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We are his body on earth. He is the head and we are the body parts, charged with being reflectors of the Christ, who is full of unfailing love and faithfulness and whose light the darkness will never extinguish.

Our mission in this book is to walk with Christ, with the eyes, ears, and hearts of disciples called to follow him, filled with a hunger for every word he speaks and a thirst for every drop of living water he shares with us from the well of life that springs up within us. In the words of John himself, we will discover that these miraculous signs and words that Jesus gave us are the reason: ‘We continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing we will have life by the power of His name.’

We will listen with new understanding to his stories, his teaching, his promises, and his commandments. We will observe his power, embrace his humility, and receive his unconditional love and forgiveness. We will leave our fear behind and choose to walk in the light.

And throughout this entire journey we will not lose sight of the amazing truth that the ‘Word was in the beginning with God and was indeed God.’ Just as God spoke the universe into being, so he is speaking life into a dark world through the Word who became human.

In the beginning the word already existed.

John 1:1

In the beginning The Word already existed.

The Word was with God and the Word was God.

He existed in the beginning with God.

God created everything through him,

and nothing was created except through him.

John 1:1-5

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created

and is supreme over all creation, for through

him God created everything in the heavenly

realms and on earth. He made things we can

see and the things we can’t see.

Such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and

authorities in the unseen world. Everything was

created through him and for him.

He existed before anything else, and he holds all

creation together.

Colossians 1:15-17

Both John and Paul leave us in no doubt that Jesus is God, the creator of all things. Here is the truth. Every time we think about, speak of, or worship Jesus, we are focussing on the one who, although he is supreme over all creation, took on human form and died on a cross for humankind. What Paul is telling us is that just as God created all things through the Son, so he chose to reveal himself to the world through the life of his Son, defeat Satan and sin through the death and resurrection of his Son, and forgive and adopt all those who come to him through the finished work of the Son.

1.God revealed himself to the world through the Son. Repeatedly, John reports Jesus speaking of his oneness with the Father. ‘I and my Father are One’, ‘If you have seen me, you have seen the Father’, ‘The Father is in me, and I am in him’. When John says, ‘the Word was with God and the Word was God’, he is saying exactly what Jesus was saying of himself. When Jesus says, ‘the Father sent the Son’, it carries the sense of salvation being the result of the Godhead working in unity, humility, and obedience. When Mary and Joseph were told that Jesus would be called ‘Emmanuel’ (God with us), it carries the sense of God the Father presenting himself among his people.

2.He defeated Satan and the power of sin through the death and resurrection of the Son. Just as God is described as one who ‘dwells in unapproachable light’, so Satan the prince of this world is described as one who ‘lives in and employs the power of darkness.’ The battle between light and darkness would be waged in the hearts and lives of people, and God’s plan was to step into humanity, live a life free from sin, and,

When he appeared in human form, he humbled

himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s

death on the cross.

Philippians 2:8

But he did not only die. Jesus rose again, demonstrating that sin and death had no power or dominion over God, while at the same time imparting eternal life to all those who believe.

3.Through Christ, God has forgiven and adopted all those who are saved through the finished work of Christ.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in

the heavenly realm, because we are united with Christ.

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose

us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family,

by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:3-5

As we explore this amazing truth, we find ourselves more and more absorbed by this divine drama: God working through his Son to create and redeem humankind, God working through the Holy Spirit to teach, guide, and empower his children, and the Holy Spirit working in believers’ hearts so that we hear God speak to us, live lives that reflect his love, and fulfill his purpose by being Christ in every place.

So, the word became human.

John 1:14

So, the Word became human and made his

home among us. He was full of unfailing love

and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory,

the glory of the Fathers only Son.

John 1:14

For God never said to any angel what he said to Jesus:

‘You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.’

God also said, ‘I will be his Father and he will be my Son.’

And when he brought his supreme Son into the world,

God said, ‘Let all the angels worship him.’ Regarding the

angels, he says, ‘He send his angels like the winds,

his servants like flames of fire.’ But to the Son he says,

‘Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.

You rule with a sceptre of justice. You love justice and

hate evil. Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you,

pouring out the oil of joy on you more than anyone else.

Hebrews 1:5-9

John, in presenting Jesus to his readers, gives the highest praise an earthbound believer could be capable of giving: ‘He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.’ We will spend our whole lives and eternity plumbing the depths of that incredible love and faithfulness.

The writer to the Hebrews takes John’s praise of Jesus even further. He gathers God’s own statements about Jesus from the Old Testament prophets and helps us understand not only who he is in human form, but who he is in relation to God and to angels: ‘You are my Son, today I have become your Father.’ The relationship in the triune Godhead is eternal in the sense that the nature, culture, and holiness of that relationship never changes. But on the day that the Word became human, God described what was happening in the heavenlies: on that day Jesus became his Son and he became Jesus’ Father. He was his Father in that Jesus the man was his offspring. He was also his Father in the sense that the Son was on earth doing what he had seen the Father do and saying what he had heard the Father say. Moreover, if humans were to become God’s children by adoption, then Jesus would become their elder brother and teach them how to relate to their Father God.

The writer further enhances the position of Jesus the Son by quoting what God says about angels. They are not his children, they are his messengers, powerful, unstoppable messengers that he likens to wind and fire. They are his servants doing his bidding without any authority of their own. But Jesus the Son has a sceptre and a throne, responsibilities, and authority which he leaves behind him to take on the form of humanity. God sends his angels out to accomplish what he desires and then they return. But the Son, when he has completed what the Father sent him to earth to accomplish, returns to sit down in the place of highest honour, at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. Listen to Paul:

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest

honour and gave him the name above all other names,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.

Philippians 2:9

The baby in the manger, being visited by shepherds and kings, the boy in the temple amazing the teachers with his questions, the man being baptised in Jordan, the wandering preacher with no place to call home, the miracle worker opening the eyes of the blind and healing the sick, and the suffering servant striding to the cross to do the Fathers will was the Son of God who would one day return to the sceptre and the throne he had left behind.

He never ceased being God. He never became less than he was when he created the universe. Only one thing changed. For thirty-three years God would be his Father and he would be the honouring, obedient, and subservient Son.

God sent a man, John the Baptist,

to tell about the light so that everyone

might believe because of his testimony.

John himself was not the light;

he was simply a witness to tell about the light.

The one who is the true light, who gives light

to everyone, who was coming into the world.

John 1: 6-9

John begins his gospel with a theological reflection on the incarnation. First, he introduces us to Jesus as the eternal Word, not as a baby in a manger. The Word was with God from the beginning. In fact, in the most amazing expression of divine community, the Word was God. God the Creator created everything through the Word. The Word gave life to everything, and that life is a light that shines in the darkness. The Word is the true light, and he gives light to everyone who comes into the world.

John’s use here of the words ‘light’ and ‘life’, and his later use of the words ‘living water’ in relation to Jesus is deliberate. He was with God in the beginning, and he was God, and everything was created through him, and the very essence of that creation was light, life, and water. It is appropriate that we should model our living on Jesus the man, but imperative that we remember that, as God, he is the ‘light of the world’ and the ‘water of life’.

As we walk with the benefit of hindsight, we know so much more about Jesus than did the disciples. To them he was Jesus of Nazareth, a carpenter’s son. They would have heard stories about his miraculous birth, and they would have known that John said that there was ‘among them someone greater than he’. As they walked with him, they heard him say things no other man had said and saw him do what no other man had done. They would have wrestled with his claims that he and the Father were one and that God had sent him to do what he had seen the Father do and say the things he had heard the Father say. They witnessed the bitter opposition of the religious leaders and were aware that they plotted to destroy their master. They saw him crucified, were witnesses to his resurrection, and watched him ascend into heaven.

However, when we read the first chapter of John’s gospel, we immediately know all that they had learnt from being with Jesus for three years, and much, much more. We know he was with God in the beginning, that he was in very essence God, who had become human and made his dwelling among us. We know that he is not only the ‘light of the world’, but that he spoke light into existence. We know that he is not simply the giver of life to those who believe, but he is the source of life for everything. John’s purpose is to give his readers a ‘high view’ of Jesus. He may have made his home among us and been tempted and tried as we are, but he is the ‘Man from Heaven’, ‘God become flesh’, ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’, and ‘God’s greatly loved Son in whom he is very pleased’.

Throughout John’s gospel the theme of ‘the oneness’ of the Father and the Son is frequently repeated. It seems that to Jesus it was the central point in every miracle he performed and every word he spoke, and to the Jewish leaders it was their main sticking point. His claims that ‘he was sent by the Father’, and ‘my Father and I are one’, and ‘I am in my Father and my Father is in me’, incensed the leaders every time he repeated them.

It is true that Jesus is our friend, because of the intimacy we share with him and the Father; He is our brother, because we have been adopted into God’s family; He is our Saviour, because he died in our place; He is our teacher because we have chosen to be his disciples; He is our master, whom we serve and obey; and He is our high priest through whom we offer our highest praise and our unending thanksgiving. But we speak all these titles with awe. Above all these things he is God, the Creator of the Universe! God, the giver of life! His holiness has been described as ‘unapproachable light’. His power places him above all principalities and rulers. His mercy reaches beyond the heavens and his love has no boundaries.

God is light, and there is no darkness in him.

John 1:5

John himself was not the light; he was simply

a witness to tell about the light. The one who is

the true light, who gives light to everyone was

coming into the world.

John 1: 8-9

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now

declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness

in him at all. So, we are lying if we say we have fellowship

with God but go on living in spiritual darkness;

we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light,

as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other,

and the blood of Jesus, his Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:5-7

In John 8:12, Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you will not walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.’ In John 9:5, he declared, ‘But while I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ In Matthew 5: 14-15, he told his disciples, ‘You are the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.’

As ‘the light’, he stepped out of heaven and into our world, so that we might see what the Father is like, and, in wonder and gratitude, love and worship him. Is that all? No! His presence in the world was also intended to expose the darkness of unbelief. In every walk of life, men and women who rejected the reign of God in their lives potentially became purveyors of darkness. Religious leaders, Roman soldiers, the rich and powerful, and the poor and disenfranchised who rejected God or who had replaced him with other gods embraced a darkness that expressed itself in selfishness, lust, violence, anger, and hatred. They did not understand the life they lived as ‘darkness’, mistakenly assuming that this was just life as it had to be or maybe even a new level of enlightenment.

In comparison to this darkness, the life of Jesus was like the coming of a dazzling light. The purity of his love for God and for men and women, the authenticity of his relationship with the Father, and his unquestioning obedience to the will of the Father exposed any lesser and even religious behaviour as sinful. Added to this, his miraculous deeds and his constant claims that he and the Father were one meant that he stood out among all other people like a city on a hill. But there was yet another reason why the Light had come into the world. The light of righteousness, love and forgiveness that emanated from Jesus was to be reflected in the lives of those who received it, into every nation and every generation.

‘You are the light of the world.’ Not the judges of the world. Not the critics of the world. Not disempowered refugees escaping from the darkness. Light! But there is more. Jesus is not telling us that we are to be sources of light, as he is the source of light. He has not told us that we must generate this light by our own righteousness. He is telling us that as recipients of the light we are to become reflectors of that light into our world. As the moon reflects the light rays of the sun in the middle of the night, or the reflectors in the centre of the road catch the rays of light from the cars’ headlamps and reflect them back to the driver, we as believers are in the right place at the right time to receive the light of God’s love and forgiveness. We are to become to the world like ‘a city on a hill’.

It is so important that we as individuals and as the Church understand this principal. In the spiritual, moral and social sense, God is the only source of light. We might find enlightenment in education or through science, philosophy or psychology, and that enlightenment may be helpful. But that is not the same as the light that emanates from God. It is in this light alone that we can know and relate to the Father. It is in this light that we can experience the depth of his love and forgiveness, and through which we can discover his purpose for our lives.

When John says, ‘The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it’, he introduces another important concept which he develops later when he says that Gods judgement is ‘based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved darkness more than light, for their actions are evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear that their sins will be exposed’.

There is war between the darkness and the light. They cannot cohabit and the darkness cannot extinguish the light. But there is a stark difference in how they react to each other. Darkness hates the light, but the people of the