Lovers of What?

This is a busy week for many of you here today, and I appreciate your taking time out of the hectic pace of the holidays to join us in worship this morning.

Some of you still have last-minute shopping to do. Now’s a good time for me to remind some of you that you should probably start making your shopping lists.

Some of you have cooking to do. Our house smelled divine yesterday, as Annette spent the day preparing goodies. She’s got more baking planned this afternoon, and there’s more that’ll take place throughout the week.

Maybe you still have some decorating to do? Does anyone here have a Christmas Eve tradition of decorating the tree?

Sometime during the next few days, I’ll vacuum the house and help prepare for Christmas Day and our large, family gathering there on New Year’s Day.

With children and grandchildren and even great-grandchildren spread all over Virginia and North Carolina — all of them having their own lives and commitments — we had to adjust our Christmas Day expectations a couple of years ago.

So, now we gather everybody at our house on New Year’s Day for a second round of opening gifts and eating too much.

Since they became adults, it’s the only time of the year when we can expect to see all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Annette looks forward to it with great anticipation, and so do I.

Which is something that still surprises me.

Most of you know that I got married late in life. Annette — who’s a LOT older than me — already had grown daughters and even grandchildren when we got married.

And not long after we were married, one of those daughters moved into our house with us, along with her three children. And suddenly, without any children of my own, I was Grandpa.

Now, as this is the fourth Sunday of Advent, our theme today is “Love.”

And it occurred to me that this set of relationships I inherited when I married Annette — and especially the relationship of love between my grandchildren and me — can help us understand something about how God loves His Son, Jesus; how He loves us; and how we should respond to that love.

You see, when I first met my grandchildren, I didn’t love them because they were especially lovable. They were dirty, misbehaved, and, quite frankly, came to us with a bunch of problems.

In fact, from one perspective, they were just random kids who’d come into my life and were going to require lots of time and money that I’d never expected to devote to children.

But one thing set them apart from all the other kids. Can you guess what it was? They were Annette’s grandchildren, and SHE loved them.

And since I loved her, I decided I was going to love THEM. And pretty soon, that’s exactly what happened. I came to love them as my own, and I still do.

But then, something REALLY unexpected happened: They loved ME. When they saw that I cared for them and was providing for them and protecting them — when they saw that I truly LOVED them — they responded to my love with their OWN love.

Today, we’re going to look at a familiar passage from the third chapter of the Gospel of John. As we do, we’ll see that the HOPE we have in Advent of true PEACE and eternal JOY is a direct manifestation of God’s LOVE.

The word “love” appears three times in this chapter. Once, it refers to the love that God has for people. Once, it refers to that which people love. And once, it refers to God’s love for His unique and eternal Son, Jesus, whose incarnation in human flesh we celebrate this week.

We’ll see in this passage how God love US. We’ll see the choice we all must make for the object of OUR love. And finally, we’ll see that all of this is possible because of God’s great and eternal love for His Son.

As you’re turning to the third chapter of John, let me give you the context of the verses we’ll be studying today.

This was still early in the 3-year ministry of Jesus. John records that He’d performed His first miracle — turning water into wine at the wedding celebration in Cana — and that He’d performed other miracles in Jerusalem afterward, during the Passover celebration there.

He’d also cleansed the temple of the merchants and money changers who were there, the first of what are probably two such incidents. So, between the miracles and the temple-cleansing, He was already becoming well-known to the religious leaders of Judea.

One of them, a Pharisee called Nicodemus, came to Jesus one night to learn more about Him.

And it’s important to note that Nicodemus is respectful to Jesus — calling Him Rabbi, or teacher, and admitting that Jesus must have been sent from God. But he’s not yet a believer, coming in darkness as he does and responding as he does with skepticism to what Jesus has to say.

Finally, after schooling this teacher of Israel in some theology he should’ve already known, Jesus puts things plainly in verse 15: “Whoever believes will in HIM” — in the Son of Man, in Jesus Himself — “have eternal life.”

Now, the next verse is probably the best-known verse of the Bible, and it’s also the most concise statement of the gospel. Let’s say it together:

John 3:16 NASB95

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

I’m not the first to say it, and I surely won’t be the last. But nearly every word of this verse is significant. And that won’t be surprising to any of you who’ve participated in our Zoom Bible studies or theology studies.

We don’t have time this morning to get into a word-by-word study of this verse, so let me just point out a couple of significant points.

First, it’s GOD doing the work here. HE’s the one doing the loving and the giving here. All WE are asked to do is to believe — to trust that Jesus is who He said He is and that He’ll do what He said He’ll do.

And when we trust in the Son — when we trust in Jesus for salvation — we’re saved from destruction and ruin. That’s what the word translated as “perish” means.

Jesus isn’t saying we won’t suffer physical death. He’s saying that those who turn to Him in faith will not be destroyed.

What will they experience, then? “Eternal life.” And in the context of Scripture, the emphasis in that phrase is always on LIFE.

The idea is that those who are given eternal life will experience life the way it was always meant to be. They’ll have life everlasting in the presence of and in fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Now, it’s also helpful to understand that the Greek construction here suggests that it wasn’t that God loved the world ENOUGH to give His Son.

When you look at the Greek behind this translation, it appears that what Jesus is saying is this: “God loved the world SO THAT He gave His Son.”

In other words, giving that which was most precious to Him was in God’s very nature.

And there’s an important lesson to us there in both loving and giving. Real love demonstrates itself in sacrifice. That’s why John would write in his first Epistle:

1 John 2:15 NASB95

15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

If we truly love Jesus — if we really have the love of the Father within us — we’ll hold onto the things of this world loosely. We’ll be ready to set them aside, to give them up, for the sake of Christ. Which is exactly what God did when He gave Jesus to the world.

And speaking of that, I think we should be asking ourselves WHY. WHY does God love the world at all? Considering our long record of rejecting Him, considering all our sins against Him, we might well expect that He’d HATE the world.

As one commentator puts it: “This love of God is amazing, not so much because the world is so big, as because it is so bad.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jn 3:16.]

Instead of giving us Jesus so we could be saved from eternal destruction, we might well expect God to send Jesus so we could be judged. And so, Jesus’ words in verse 17 might well come to us as a surprise.

John 3:17–18 NASB95

17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Now, the Jews of Jesus time expected that when the promised Messiah came, He’d come in judgment. He’d come to condemn the world. So, this would’ve been shocking to Nicodemus.

And Jesus WILL come back one day to judge the world. He’ll return upon His white horse as the conquering King, ridding the world of unrighteousness. And we who follow Him await that second Advent with great anticipation.

But in His FIRST Advent, Jesus, the Messiah, came into a world that was ALREADY condemned. The world is ALREADY subject to condemnation because of its lack of faith in God through Christ Jesus.

In His first Advent, Jesus came to save those who’d turn to Him in faith because of what His life reveals to us about the Father and what His death and resurrection accomplish to reconcile us to God.

Since we all begin in a state of lostness and must COME to faith in Jesus, we’re all already judged as sinners. What happens when we believe in Jesus -- when we place our faith in Him — is that the judgment is reversed on our behalf.

Legally speaking, two people can’t be judged and convicted for the same crime. At the cross, Jesus, who was completely human, yet without sin, represented mankind. That’s why he’s described in the New Testament as the second Adam.

As the representative of sinful mankind, He who knew no sin took upon Himself the sins of mankind and the judgment of God for those sins. He paid the price we owe for our sins.

And since He was already judged for our sins, we who’ve accepted Him as our representative — as our Savior — can no longer be judged for them. The judgment has already been delivered. The penalty has already been paid. So, our judgment has been expunged.

But we’re not obligated to accept Jesus’ representation. And if we choose not to accept Him as our representative — if we choose not to place our faith in Him — then the judgment against us must stand.

In choosing to reject Jesus as your representative, you’re essentially saying you’re willing to represent yourself. You’re willing to face God on your own terms and let the chips fall where they may.

And that won’t work out well for you, because God is perfectly righteous and just. He’s absolutely opposed to sin, and He can’t let it go unpunished.

Beginning in verse 19, Jesus presents this choice for mankind as a choice between Light and darkness.

John 3:19–21 NASB95

19 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

Now, the word for judgment has a different sense than the one for “judge” in the previous verses. There, “judge” referred to the sentence of judgment. In other words, it referred to condemnation.

Here, the Greek word translated as “judgment” refers to the grounds for judgment. Jesus is describing that which distinguishes those who are judged and condemned from those who escape God’s judgment through faith in Him and His finished work at the cross. The Greek word here has a sense of division or selection.

And Jesus’ point here in this second appearance of the word “love” in this chapter is this: When He, the Light of the world, came into the world, people divided themselves into two groups: those who loved the Light and those who loved the darkness.

In fact, the fundamental difference between believers and unbelievers is not their guilt before God. We’re all guilty before Him. ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

No, the fundamental difference between the saved and the condemned, as Jesus says here, is their attitude toward the Light. the difference is their attitude toward Jesus, the Light of the World.

Nothing is hidden in the light, so those who love the Light come to God and have all their sin laid bare before Him. This can be ugly, and it’s sure to be uncomfortable.

But it should also be encouraging, because the fact is that God already KNEW all our sins. Nothing is hidden from Him. Even the darkness isn’t dark to Him. And He loves us, anyway, even knowing our sins.

Already knowing we were sinners — already knowing the depths of our depravity — God loved the world. And already knowing the extent of our rebelliousness and the fact that many would reject Him, Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice for us and in our place at Calvary’s cross.

As the Apostle Paul puts it, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

So, the Light hasn’t exposed our sins to GOD. What the Light has done is to expose them to US. The Light forces us to confront the fact that we’re unworthy to stand in the presence of God. That we’re broken and covered in filth. That we’re sinners.

Those who love the darkness, on the other hand, love it because they believe it hides their sin. To the extent that they give a thought to God at all, they believe their sins are hidden from Him.

But even more significantly, they love the darkness, because it hides their sin from THEMSELVES.

By remaining in the darkness, rather than stepping into the light of Jesus and His righteousness, they can deceive themselves into believing that sin isn’t an issue for them. In the darkness, they can pretend sin isn’t even a thing.

Just as Adam and Eve wanted to do in the Garden of Eden, they believe they can declare for themselves what’s right and what’s wrong. They can “live their own truth,” as so many people would put it these days.

“Much of contemporary people’s problem with the gospel is anthropological: It arises from a faulty view of themselves. People generally view human beings as morally and ethically neutral if not good. Therefore the fact that God sent Jesus, and Jesus came to save sinners, seems only interesting at best. If people are good and not in need of salvation, they can applaud God’s love as admirable. If people are neutral, they can take salvation or leave it. If they leave it, God appears unfair for condemning them. However, people are not good or neutral but bad. They already stand condemned and destined to experience God’s wrath. Therefore faith in Jesus becomes a necessary way of escape from that dreadful destiny. The Incarnation is a manifestation of divine grace, not just divine love.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jn 3:20.]

Because of His great love and His wondrous grace, God gave us Jesus, the Light of the world, to show we who were under His just condemnation for our sins just how desperate we are for a Savior.

And when we acknowledge this truth about ourselves — when we turn to the Light of Him who IS Truth — we can then understand that even the good things we do in life are really from God.

The longer we stand in the Truth of Jesus, the more we recognize our own brokenness. The closer we get to HIS righteousness, the more we see our our own UNrighteousness.

So, we’ve seen how God manifested His love for the world. And we’ve seen the choice each of us has to make in how to respond to that love — whether we’ll love the darkness or the Light.

But there’s a question I left unanswered a few minutes ago. And as we look at the last appearance of this word, “love” in chapter 3, we’ll see the answer. Skip down to verse 35.

John 3:35 NASB95

35 “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.

Why does God love the world, when we might well expect Him to hate it? Because the world was made for His beloved Son, Jesus!

Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Colossians:

Colossians 1:16 NASB95

16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.

Much as I chose to love my grandchildren because they were ANNETTE’S grandchildren, and she loved them, God chose to love the world, because it belongs to Jesus.

But considering that we’d rebel against God — considering that we’d choose sin over His righteousness, that creates a problem.

God is love. But God is also perfectly holy and righteous and just. And He wouldn’t be righteous and just if He allowed sin to go unpunished. Justice demands that those who commit INjustice — those who commit sin — be punished for their transgressions.

And before a perfectly righteous God, none of us could save ourselves from His just punishment even with a lifetime’s worth of good deeds. Even our smallest sin is such an affront to His holiness that we’d all be utterly lost.

But God is good, and He loves us. And in his unfathomable grace and love, He gave us His eternally beloved Son, who took upon HIMSELF the punishment we all deserve for our sins.

So we could be forgiven. So we could be saved. So we could be reconciled to Him.

Which brings us back to the choice. Look at verse 36.

John 3:36 NASB95

36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Each one of us here today has the choice between eternal life and the wrath of God. Each one of us here today has the choice between life everlasting in the presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit or eternal condemnation and destruction in Hell.

Each one of us has the choice to love the Light or to love the darkness. We can choose to believe in the Son — to trust that the sinless and eternal Son of God lived and died in human flesh, taking upon Himself at the cross the punishment we deserve for our sins so we can be forgiven and saved THROUGH faith in Him.

Or we can choose to disobey Him — to reject His sacrifice and therefore reject Him. To love the darkness, rather than the Light.

One choice brings eternal life. The other brings the wrath of God. What will YOU choose today?