The Only Son

Text: John 3:16

Central Idea of the Text: God’s greatest gift in Christ makes eternal life with God possible.

Proposition: To receive all of God’s gifts, we must start with the son.

Purpose: All hearers must know whether they belong to the Son, or have sought his blessings without receiving him.

As of today, it’s 25 days until Christmas. Have you recieved your Christmas lists yet? Made your Christmas list? Planned the locations you’ll be at for the celebrations? Put together a list of the menu and food supplies needed for the gatherings? I know that some of you have been working on those lists on all those Black Friday deals, which now somehow reach beyond Black Friday to parts of October and November. All the stores and vendors and websites want to make sure you have as long a list as possible and that every box gets checked.

But is it possible at Christmas that you’ve made a list and checked it twice, but the third and fourth review gives notice that you STILL missed something and someone is going to have to make both a morning and afternoon run to town to pickup both groceries and presents. I always chuckle on Christmas Eve spent with my in-laws, the amount of cars and directions going to town the day before and the day of the big celebrations. We will hear things like: We need one more thing for _____. There’s not enough cool-whip in the house. There’s another special Christmas-eve doorbuster at JCPennys, and all of the grandkids need one! So four different vehicles leaving at different times will all migrate to town. Forgotten things and last minute trips. That’s Christmas to me.

There’s a lot of moving pieces in busy seasons like Christmas. Even famous Christmas movies like Home Alone speak to the Christmas trope of leaving one of your kids at home during the holiday chaos, only to realize he was left at home when you’re half-way to Europe. But it highlights a danger for all of us: What if we allowed a celebration to become so bloated, so shiny and so chaotic, that we forgot the most important thing.

I’d like to welcome you to our Christmas series: “The Gifts of Christmas”. It’s a series where each week we will be opening and unpacking one small verse about the gifts of God. It’s not specifically going through the traditional Christmas stories from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but it will certainly touch on the truths of what Christmas is all about. But I think you’ll appreciate zooming in on these small verses, so that we can receive the powerful eternal truths contained therein.

Today’s first gift is found in a familiar text: John 3:16. I hope you’ll take a moment to honor the Lord and his word by opening your Bible and by giving your attention to this small verse with big truth.

Read Text

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

This is the Word of the Lord and the first gift of Christmas for us this morning.

Would you pray with me? God, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for this verse. Many of us are familiar with it, but many gloss over it’s meaning for them. Christmas is a season that is many things to us God. But would you give us these moments to press pause and see the greatest gifts that you have given that are essential to us? Let us not miss the core of Christmas and miss what you have done for us. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

You may be feeling underwhelmed this morning when I tell you that the first gift of Christmas is a verse 24 words long. One full sentence. It’s not long and it’s not novel to many of you. You’ve heard this verse before, perhaps hearing it even if you never grew up in or around a church. But neither its brevity nor its normalcy mean that we should write it off or discount it. So please let me figuratively give you a playful slap on both cheeks to say: “Wake up Christmas kids! God’s got something good for all of us in this bite size package today.

But to understand the power of this verse, we have to pause and try to understand the context here. We have to go back to Nick at Night. I’m not talking about TV shows on the Nickelodeon TV Channel, I’m talking about a certain Pharisee named Nicodemus. Early in John’s gospel, and (we presume) earlier in Jesus’ ministry, this Pharisee shows up at night and wants to talk to Jesus. Now if you know much about Jesus, you know that he often didn’t have a strong affinity for the Pharisees. Actually, it was more the reverse of that … the Pharisees didn’t have a strong affinity for Jesus. They found his teaching and his works to be offensive, and they were looking to trip him up every chance they got. At this point of John’s gospel, all they have seen Jesus do is a miracle of Water to Wine at a wedding in Cana, and his cleansing of the temple by turning over tables. Even with this small survey, many have seen enough.

But this Nicodemus, he comes to Jesus at night, because it is best for his own inquiry and safety that he come under cover of darkness to try to get the truth. He inquires in verse 2: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Many have been wondering about this guy … how can he be doing such things? Could it be that God is with him? Who is he and why is he here? Nic needs to know.

But Jesus responds in verse 3 but cutting to the heart of the issue to talk about God’s Kingdom and who will be part of it: “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He says … I see past your question. You already know that God is behind what I’ve been doing. You know I’m someone whose action display real power and whose words carry real weight. You want to know how you can be a part of what is happening, and God’s kingdom. Well I will tell you: be born again.

This leads to all kinds of confusion and a back and forth of questioning and clarification with Jesus. I can’t get back in my mother’s womb Jesus! What on earth do you mean? Please explain and clarify. It is in the midst of that clarification that we receive this gift, this verse: John 3:16. It’s a verse that’s been called the heart of the Gospel, or the Gospel in miniature. It’s been printed on banners and put on tshirts. It’s been memorized, and recited while also being misunderstood. But in spite of its familiarity, John 3:16 is (by its nature) a powerful and personal verse and must become to you a very personal thing.

So let’s not misunderstand Jesus this morning. Who is this Jesus, what is this Kingdom, and how can we get in on it? Let’s join Nic in understanding Christ’s most concise explanation of the Gospel of the Kingdom, and understand Nic’s questions with these three golden truth nuggets found in Jesus’ answer:

From/To: God’s Gift Driven by Love

We start by examining the opening phrase “For God so loved the world.” As with anything the verse starts with God. He is the beginning and end, first and last, Alpha and Omega. Because of what’s been revealed to us in scripture, we know that Genesis 1:1 starts with “in the beginning God” and Revelation 22:20 ends with “Come Lord Jesus!” From the beginning God and in the end God. But in the middle? Jesus wants to explain that even now, God is working to bring his will to pass.

What did this God do? “So loved the world.” We could gloss over the meaning of these four words, but we shouldn’t. God loved. This is the Greek Agape. As many of you know, there are many words in Greek for love. But this word is not a family love, it is not a brotherly friendship love, it is not an intimate sexually-driven love. It is the love above all the other loves. It is the perfect Love of God. It is the same love that Paul writes of when he speaks of Love’s highest definition in 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 “4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” It’s everything that human love ought to aspire to do, but so often falls short at. His “so” loving is indicative of the manner in which the love is expressed; it is mode, intensity and extent. The NET bible puts it this way: “This is the way God loved ...”

The way God loved the what? The world. The word here in Greek is Kosmos. This is a word that encompasses all that was created especially as it relates to humanity. It definitely blows the doors off of Nicodemus’ ideas and worldview of the Love of God. A love for the world? I thought God’s love was just for his special nation, Israel. but Jesus says here that the love of God is bigger than any one person, than any one nation, than any one language or boundary. it is a love that is large and powerful.

But what is this love? I think we often pull this phrase aside from the rest of the verse, and we simply make it about a feeling or a sentiment. But that is not it. God knows that this Kosmos/world has a problem. The problem is sin. This is why Jesus is telling Nic that he needs a new birth. That first birth was a birth into a life that knows sin and death. We are the sons and the daughters of Adam and Eve. From the beginning, God told us what was right, and we chose what was wrong. This has been our sin problem from the beginning of Genesis and beyond. And it was a curse that has afflicted all of mankind and creation.

The love is what drives God to do what he does, but we should make sure that we understand what Love does and what love doesn’t do. Love doesn’t simply live and let live. Love doesn’t simply overlook. Love doesn’t grant cheap grace. If God did nothing, that is what his love would look like. But then it wouldn’t really be love, would it. Parents, how do your kids know that you love them. Do they know it when you’ve bought them stuff without thought of cost? Do they know you love them when you give them no rules? Do they know that you love them when there are no consequences for their breaking a rule or disobeying? No way! That isn’t love. And the love of God is not a get out of jail free card for all! God had to act in a substantial and consequential way ...

What: The Son is the Gift

What what did God do? “He gave his only Son.” This is the most consequential phrase for us this morning, because we must see that Jesus Christ, the Son, is the gift of Christmas. These words carry great weight in this verse. He and His indicate that this Son comes from God the Father. The word for “only” (monogenes) in an indication of the exclusivity of the Son. It is the same word that is used to define an only child. This is a unique child, and there is not another equal or like him. It is the language of a set-apart, Holy Son. It is not the language that can give way to the son as simply another prophet (as Islam would teach) or the language of a son among many sons (as Mormonism would teach).

And yes, the word son is used here, but we should not understand this in the sense that he was created. John’s gospel could not be more clear from the beginning that Christ was and always will be. The word was God and is God as he reminds us in John 1:1-2. This Son is the promised son who would be born of the woman by God’s power and promise. And this Jesus, the one who is speaking, is that Son. As we read this, we should be understanding more broadly that the Triune God was sending himself to do his saving work. That is the work of Jesus. Jesus is prime in his position, and he is exclusive in his mission.

If Christmas and the incarnation pops up in this text, it is most definitely in the verses that follow. Verse 17 tells us: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” When Jesus came into the world, when he was born of the Virgin Mary on that first Christmas, he was clearly being born to make a way for the “world to be saved through him.” He didn’t come bearing a sword. He came by humble means of a peasant family. That humble birth gave way to a powerful yet humble servant ministry. And by God’s purpose, his humility resulted in his crucifixion. These same Jewish leaders, some of Nicodemus’ friends, they saw to it that Jesus would die. But even Jesus implies the meaning of that cross in verses 14-15: that “the Son of Man [must] be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” There’s a lot more to that story found in Numbers 21, but the point is that Christ’s innocent birth, his perfect life lived, and his unjust trial all added up to a blood sacrifice that would lay down a sacrifice that was necessary to make a way to God, and express the deep and great love of God for the whole Kosmos to see it. And that is what we see, when we see any depiction of a cross. We are looking at love personified and God’s eternal mark that shadows all human history. Christ’s blood shed on the cross is love personified. It becons everyone to come consider that greatest love and kneel in the shadow that it casts. It is that expression of love that leads us to what the gospel hinges on for us.

How: The Bottom Line is Belief

Ok. God loves the world. Ok. Jesus had to die for the sin of that world. What about you and me? I think many people stop reading the verse at this point as well, or they don’t read it carefully. They either stop at: God loves me. Or at Jesus died for me. As if those who phrases by themselves are all that there is of the Gospel, and default bills paid, boom roasted we all going to heaven, yee haw. But don’t stop reading at one spot in Jesus’ statement or be selective in what you hear. Take the WHOLE thing for what it says: “that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

The bottom line of this portion of the verse hinges on the belief statement. When you read it, don’t stop and assume based on the whoever, like its some kind of universal salvation offering. It’s not. It’s a free gift but an exclusive salvation offering. “Whoever believes” is “all the believing ones”. It is an inseparable train. Anyone may come. But they must come in belief and faith.

What is the object of their faith? It is specific. It is Jesus Christ. It is not a generic faith, or a faith for the sake of faith. It is tied to Jesus’ specific person and work. And if you have that faith? There is a promise of eternal life. But if you do not have that faith, the implication here is that you will perish (eternally). Verse 18 clarifies: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

So what is this belief? Well here is a hint. It is more than what we often think of when we speak sentimentally of belief at Christmas. I too love to watch the Polar Express at Christmas time, but if that movies sentiment is all that you embrace with regard to belief, then you’ve missed the boat. If “I believe in Santa Claus” and “I believe in Jesus” hold the same weight and sentiment to you, then you don’t really know or understand any of what Jesus Christ has done or who he actually is.

This word “pisteuo” in the Greek is the word for belief. But it is not simply a word for a sentiment of the mind. It is a word that is tied to trust in the heart and action in the hands. That belief that we are to have in the Son that would be to saving effect would be a faith that is an “if—->then” faith. It is a faith that starts with acceptance and trust, and leads us from there toward a practical application of Jesus’ life and teaching to our own. Belief is the beginning of a continuing life of discipleship.

I simply say all of that to say that to say this: Don’t skip the Son to get to salvation. We all want to know the promises of God realized in our life, and a promise of life after death. But that reward does not come by shortcutting the Son. All who come to the Father for life MUST come through the Son, taking hold of the Son by Faith. He is the greatest gift of Christmas.

Summary

This morning, we’ve opened one of the greatest gifts of scripture that has been given to us: the heart of the Gospel. We have seen 3 glorious nuggets of truth:

God’s Gift is Driven by His Love: Because God’s love is so great, he does not want to see us lost in our sin. His love demands that he send a solution.

The Son is God’s Gift: There is no greater gift God could give than his son, because he meets our greatest need and pays the price for our sin with his life.

The Bottom Line is Belief: There is a response required in your life, it is a faith in Jesus Christ that leads to not just a momentary prayer but lifelong discipleship.

So what about Nicodemus? Did he become the Original Old Saint Nic, or did he remain a curmudgeonly hard hearted pharisee? The remainder of Johns Gospel seems to offer some clues. In John 7, Jesus is gaining a following and the Pharisees are jealous. They are already chomping at the bit to arrest Jesus within even listening to his teaching or giving him a hearing. But Nicodemus speaks on Jesus behalf in John 7:51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” The other pharisees accused Nicodemus of being a homer for Jesus, but he asked the question nonetheless. Later in John 19, as Jesus is tried, crucified and dies hanging on that cross, his body is removed. John 19:39 says: “Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.” It was with these items that the body of Jesus was wrapped for burial. If Nicodemus had not believed in the son, it is hard to believe that he would have done these two very public actions in support of Jesus. Just those two pieces of evidence point to the fact that Nicodemus was one of the few who would recognize what was true: that Jesus was God’s gift that had come into the world.

Jesus is God’s first and primary gift of Christmas. But if Christmas is all that you know of the Savior Jesus? I’d encourage you to get into the word with us in the coming year. Get to know the Jesus who grew up to be the greatest of all teachers. You’ll start to find that Jesus the Son is a whole lot bigger than a baby. And I will wager this about Christmas. God is not so interested in you celebrating a Christmas with a Jesus that is so small that you can put him away for the rest of the year. God’s aim is for you to see the Son as the Savior and receive him this day and every day.

That belief, that faith that we speak of from this verse is a covenantal faith. It is meant to be understood by the mind, received by the heart, and acted on by the hand. It starts when you receive the truth of the word: “God so loved the world.” That includes me. That includes you. “That he gave his only Son.” That is Jesus. Blameless. Perfect. Powerful. Holy. Sacrificed for my sin. “That whoever believes in Him.” Knowing Him. Confessing Him. Baptized into Him. Acting upon faith. “Should not perish but have eternal life.” Would you come today? Cry out to Jesus.