June 8, 2025 “How the Trinity Fuels Love” John 17:20-26 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” I Believe // Smith, Wickham, Davenport Verse 1 I believe there is one salvation, One doorway that leads to life One redemption, One confession I believe in the name of Jesus Christ Verse 2 I believe in the crucifixion, By His blood I have been set free I believe in the resurrection, Hallelujah His life is death's defeat Chorus 1 All praise to God the Father, All praise to Christ the Son All praise to the Holy Spirit, Our God has overcome The King who was and is and evermore will be In Jesus mighty name I believe Verse 3 I believe in the hope of heaven, He's preparing a place for me Far beyond what hearts imagine, Ears have heard or eyes have seen Verse 4 I believe that a day is coming, He's returning to claim His bride Light the altar, Keep it burning See the Lamb who rose a roaring Lion Chorus 1 Bridge (x3) No I'll never be ashamed, Of the gospel of Jesus Christ How could I ever walk away, From the One who saved my life Chorus 2 (x2) All praise to God our Father, All praise to Christ the Son All praise to the Holy Spirit, Our God has overcome The King who was and is and evermore will be In Jesus mighty name I believe (x2) “I Believe” Music and words by Jonathan Smith, Phil Wickham, Chris Davenport© 2023 Be Essential Songs (BMI) / Cashagamble Jet Music (BMI) / Simply Global Songs (BMI) / Phil Wickham Music (BMI) (admin at EssentialMusicPublishing.com). All rights reserved. Used by permission.. CCLI License# 1748657 Responsive Scripture Reading // Ephesians 2:1-10 READER And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[b] CHURCH 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. READER 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. CHURCH 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Run to the Father// Carnes, Maher, Jackson Verse 1 I've carried a burden for too long on my own, I wasn't created to bear it alone I hear Your invitation to let it all go, I see it now, I'm laying it down And I know that I need You Chorus I run to the Father, I fall into grace I'm done with the hiding, no reason to wait My heart needs a surgeon, my soul needs a friend So I'll run to the Father again and again and again and again Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh Verse 2 You saw my condition, had a plan from the start Your Son for redemption, the price for my heart And I don't have a context for that kind of love, I don't understand, I can't comprehend, All I know is I need You Chorus Bridge My heart has been in Your sights, Long before my first breath Running into Your arms, Is running to life from death And I feel this rush deep in my chest, Your mercy is calling out Just as I am You pull me in, And I know I need You now Chorus I run to the Father, I fall into grace, I'm done with the hiding, no reason to wait My heart needs a surgeon, my soul needs a friend So I'll run to the Father again and again I run to the Father, I fall into grace, I'm done with the hiding, no reason to wait And my heart found a surgeon, my soul found a friend So I'll run to the Father again and again and again and again Oh-oh, oh-oh…, Again and again and again and again (Oh-oh, oh-oh) Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, Again and again “Run to the Father” Music and words by Cody Carnes,Ran Jackson, Matt Maher © 2019 Songs From Richmond Park (BMI) / Be Essential Songs (BMI) / I Am A Pilgrim Songs (BMI) (admin at EssentialMusicPublishing.com). All rights reserved. Used by permission.CCLI License# 1748657 Overcome// Jeremy Camp Verse 1 Seated above enthroned in the Father's love Destined to die poured out for all mankind God's only Son perfect and spotless One He never sinned but suffered as if He did Pre-Chorus All authority, Every victory is Yours All authority, Every victory is Yours Chorus Savior worthy of honor and glory, Worthy of all our praise You overcame Jesus awesome in power forever, Awesome and great is Your Name For You overcame Verse 2 (x2) Power in hand, Speaking the Father's plan You're sending us out, Light in this broken land Pre-Chorus Chorus Bridge (x2) We will overcome, By the blood of the Lamb And the word of our testimony, Everyone overcome Chorus (x2) You overcame “Overcome” Words and Music by Jon Egan © 2007 Integrity Worship Music CCLI License# 1748657 SERMON How The Trinity Fuels Love John 17:20-26 Sermon Handout Key truth today: The source of our love for one another as Christians is the eternal and immutable Triune God. We don’t come up with this love. We don’t produce it. We connect with this love through faith in Christ and by abiding in Him, His agape love flows in us and through us. Agape love is not something we can ever manufacture. It is actually the overflow of our relationship to God. It is Christ in us who loves through us. The impulse in our hearts to love one another is something that flows out of an eternal impulse with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In John 17, Jesus’ prays for us. He prays in such a way that it becomes clear what His desire is for us – that we might experience and we might overflow with the love that He has enjoyed as the Son with the Father for all eternity. I. Trinitarian Love: Jesus prays that all Christians’ may learn to love out of the overflow of their union with the Father and the Son. (John 17:20-21) “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:20-21). Jesus’ prayer is that all Christians, all those who believe the gospel on account of the message of the apostles, would be one just as the Father and the Son are one. Jesus is praying to the Father because He wants us to possess what the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit already possess oneness – the unity of uninterrupted eternal love. “Wherever there is Love, there is a Trinity. A Lover (God the Father), a Beloved (God the Son) and a Fountain of Love (the Holy Spirit).” (Augustine) Comparable Vs. Connected - Jesus is not simply praying that our love and unity as Christians would be comparable to the love and unity that exists between the Father and the Son. Jesus is praying that we ourselves would be connected (in union) with the Father who is in union with the Son. Your ability to love (agape) is a capacity that is created by union with Jesus Christ and sustained by union with God the Father through the Son. Why does Jesus pray this? - “So that the world may believe that you have sent me.” The end isn’t merely that we are loving one another like God is loving one another. The end goal is that we are loving expansively the way that God has loved us. Chris Talbot: “The church can exist now as a kind of plausibility structure to give the outside world an idea of what is possible. For example, think of the kind of unity and reconciliation that is available for people within the Christian faith. Our churches should provide communities where people of all backgrounds and people groups can come together in worship of the resurrected Christ. When we do this, we are practicing for the eschaton revealed in Revelation 7. In that passage, John the Revelator tells us that people from every nation, tribe, people, and language will stand before the throne of Christ and, in unison, proclaim, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (ESV, v. 10) Here, on full display, is the true reality for the Christian at the end of all things. Every believer will be fully at peace not only with themselves but also with each other and the Creator.” John 16:25-28 “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and believed that I am from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” John 8:42 “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and am here; I did not come on my own, but he sent me.” John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.” The church is the visible manifestation of the reality of Jesus’ claim that He came from the Father and there is another realm where real love, real unity, and real joy can be found. “Here is a God who is not essentially lonely, but who has been loving for all eternity as the Father has loved the Son in the Spirit. Loving others is not a strange or novel thing for this God at all; it is at the root of who he is… The Father so delighted in his Son that his love for him overflowed, so that the Son might be the firstborn among many sons.” Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity II. The Fountain of the Love is the Holy Spirit: It is the Holy Spirit who produces the kind of agape love that Jesus prays for. (John 17:22-23) “The glory that you have given to me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:22-23) What is the glory that Jesus has given to his disciples that enables the disciples to be one just as God the Father and God the Son are one? “I think, that the meaning is that we may partake of the same Spirit of grace and sanctification…” John Mayer (1553-1664) “Now, this began to be fulfilled at the beginning, when the Holy Spirit was sent and the believers were made of one heart and soul, which was something astounding even in the sight of the world, so that without doubt even the godless were compelled to exclaim, “Here is the finger of God, and the right hand of the most high!” Johannes Brenz (1499-1570) Only as Christ abides in us by the Holy Spirit, just as the Holy Spirit resides in union with the Father and the Son, do we have the possibility of being united as one people in a world and living in love like the Triune God does. Colossians 1:27 “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” John 14:15-20 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” Ephesians 4:1-6 “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in us all.” We don’t create oneness. We seek in the power of the Holy Spirit to preserve this glorious reality that we have God living in us not merely as individuals but as a community. Foster humility. Exercise gentleness. Practice patience, bearing with one another in love. Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” This is the glory that we have received – that we can actually see every scenario in which Christ placed us in as a divinely orchestrated opportunity to display the eternal love that has always existed between the Father and the Son and Spirit and will always exist in the eternal Kingdom of God. This is a work that the Holy Spirit places and develops and sustains in us. **III. The Perpetual Priestly Role of Christ: Christ has made it the focus of His priestly ministry to pray that we might grow in this love together which He has enjoyed with the Father and the Spirit for all eternity. ** “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:24-26) Erasmus: “Christ asks on behalf of the church while he is still working on earth in order to show that he will be an eternal and perpetual intercessor for the church, even at the right hand of God the Father.” If we want to know what Jesus has prioritized in his praying for us in heaven… this is it. Will you make it your goal to prioritize this in your prayer life? How often do you ask God to teach you to love one another the way that the Triune God loves each other and how God in Christ has loved us? Do you have a view that sees the church as giving the world around a hopeful vision of the potential of being securely and faithfully loved in a world of hopelessness, brokenness and abandonment? How has that happened in your life and how will can it happen through our lives together? Christ Our Hope in Life and Death// Kauflin, Getty, Boswell, Papa, Merker VERSE 1 What is our hope in life and death? Christ alone, Christ alone What is our only confidence?, That our souls to him belong Who holds our days within his hand?, What comes, apart from his command? And what will keep us to the end? The love of Christ, in which we stand CHORUS O sing halle-lujah!, Our hope springs eternal O sing halle-lujah! Now and ever we confess Christ our hope in life and death Christ our hope in life and death VERSE 2 What truth can calm the troubled soul?, God is good, God is good Where is his grace and goodness known?, In our great Redeemer's blood Who holds our faith when fears arise? Who stands above the stormy trial? Who sends the waves that bring us nigh?, Un-to the shore, the rock of Christ CHORUS VERSE 3 Unto the grave, what will we sing?, “Christ, he lives! Christ, he lives!” And what reward will heaven bring?, Everlasting life with him There we will rise to meet the Lord, Then sin and death will be destroyed And we will feast in endless joy When Christ is ours forevermore CHORUS Now and ever we confess Christ our hope in life and death “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death” Music and words by Kauflin, Getty, Boswell, Papa, Merker© 2023 © 2020 Getty Music Hymns and Songs, Getty Music Publishing, Jordan Kauflin Music, Love Your Enemies Publishing, Matthew Merker Music, Messenger Hymns (admin. Music Services, Inc.) CCLI License# 1748657 Thank you for joining us today! Stay connected to Waterbrooke Church by visiting our website and completing our onine Connect Card.