The Revelation of God’s Great Love
Advent 2025 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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This is part 3 of our Advent 2025 mini series we have been in over the last few weeks. The fourth and final installment to the series will be on Christmas Eve. Thus far we have had two messages on “hope”. For today’s message, and third installment in the series in studying the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, I would like to examine “The Revelation of God’s Great Love.” Please turn in your Bibles to The Gospel According to John, chapter 3, verses 16-17.
“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. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
This is the world’s most well-known verse of Scripture. It is brief and to the point, Jesus revealed God’s great love.
1. The fact of God’s great love: God so loved (John 3:16).
1. The fact of God’s great love: God so loved (John 3:16).
“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.”
God so loved the world. He loved the whole world. Note several facts.
a. The idea that God loves the whole world is a new idea. The Jews believed God loved the religious (the true Jew) and hated the non-religious (the Gentiles). The same thoughts are held by many in every generation, especially by religionists. The fact that God truly loves is shocking to many. Some wonder and others question how God could possibly love the…
Vile person, the man who beats his wife, the thief, the oppressor, the murderer, the child abuser, the alcoholic, the enslaver, the immoral person, the prostitute, a person living on the streets, those who are bitter and vengeful.
Thought 1. God loves every man, not just the religious and the good. He does not love only the people who love Him. He loves everyone, even the unlovely and the unloving, the unbelieving and the obstinate, the selfish and the greedy, the spiteful and the vengeful.
“And I have other sheep, which are not from this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”
“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him, for “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
b. The basis of God’s love is His nature. God is love (1 Jn. 4:8, 16); therefore, He loves. He acts, demonstrates, and shows His love.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
“The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
“And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
c. Love acts; it expresses itself. Love does not sit still, doing nothing. It is not dormant, complacent, inactive. If love actually exists, it has to act and express itself; it has to do something good. Love is loving; that is, love is always demonstrating love to others. Therefore, God’s love acts and reveals Him to be love.
Thought 1. God wants people to know His love. He wants to reach everyone in the world with His love.
“By this we have known love, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”
“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”
Deeper Study #1
(3:16) God Loved: past tense. A past, proven fact. An outline of the greatness of God’s love is seen in this verse. (1) Height: God loved. (2) Depth: so loved. (3) Length: God gave. (4) Breadth: whoever.
2. The evidence of God’s great love: God gave (John 3:16).
2. The evidence of God’s great love: God gave (John 3:16).
“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.”
There is the evidence of God’s love—God gave His only begotten Son. Note several points.
a. God demonstrated His love in the most perfect way possible: He gave His only begotten Son to the world. As God, He is perfect, which means His love is perfect. Therefore, God not only loves, but He so loves. He loves to perfection, loves to the ultimate degree. Whatever the ultimate degree and the perfect act and expression of love is, God shows it. Without question, the greatest act of love is the sacrifice of a man’s own life; therefore, God sacrificed the life of His own Son to save man.
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
b. The word gave (edoken) has a twofold meaning. God gave His Son to the world, and He gave His Son to die. The idea of sacrifice, of great cost, is in both acts. It cost God dearly to give His Son up to the world and up to the cross.
He gave up His Son to be separated from Him, allowing Jesus to leave His presence, to leave the majesty and glory, worship and honor of heaven.
He gave up His Son to be separated from Him, allowing Jesus to come to earth…
Into a world that was… fallen, depraved, wicked, rebellious, revolting, apostate.
Into a world full of… darkness, hostility, bitterness, wrath, anger, war, selfishness, greed, immorality, barriers, sin and shame.
3. He gave up His Son to be separated from Him, allowing Jesus to die for the sins of men.
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”
“Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that having died to sin, we might live to righteousness; by His wounds you were healed.”
“For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that He might bring you to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit”
c. A most glorious evidence of God’s love is that God too the initiative to save man. Man did not seek to same himself; God sought to save him. God gave His Son so that we might be forgiven and saved. God is the seeking Savior.
God is not… angry, unloving, unforgiving. God does not… hate people, have to be persuaded to love people, have to be convinced to forgive people.
“Yahweh appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.”
“But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved”
d. The most glorious truth is that God gave His only begotten Son. This is the most remarkable proof of God’s love. It magnifies and shows how great His love really is. He was willing to give the thing most dear to His heart in order to save the world. Note this: God even planned to give His Son throughout eternity.
“this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”
3. The purpose of God’s great love: to save (John 3:16).
3. The purpose of God’s great love: to save (John 3:16).
“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.”
There is a purpose of God’s love: to save men, to save people. God’s purpose in giving His Son was threefold.
a. To save men from perishing.
b. To save men to eternal life.
c. To save men through belief.
Deeper Study #2
(3:16) Perish—Perishing (apoletai): to be lost, to destroy utterly, to lose utterly, to lose eternal life, to be spiritually destitute, to be cut off.
1. Perishing means to be in a lost state in this world. It means to be…
aging, deteriorating, decaying, dying.
without life (purpose, meaning, significance).
without peace (assurance, confidence, security in God’s keeping).
without hope (of living forever).
2. Perishing means to be in a lost state in the world to come. It means…
having to die, facing judgment, being condemned, suffering separation from God and all loved ones, experiencing all that hell is.
4. The proof of God’s great love: God sent His Son (the Incarnation) (John 3:17).
4. The proof of God’s great love: God sent His Son (the Incarnation) (John 3:17).
“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
There is the proof of God’s love, the Incarnation. God actually sent His Son into the world (Jn. 1:14).
a. Christ was not sent to condemn or to judge the world. That was not His purpose. However, we, the world, deserve to be judged and condemned.
We are guilty both of breaking God’s law and of coming short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23).
We are convicted (Rom. 3:9-18).
b. Christ was sent to save the world. His purpose was to save us from perishing and to save us to eternal life.
“For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
“just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
5. The means of God’s great love: through Him (John 3:17).
5. The means of God’s great love: through Him (John 3:17).
“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
There is the means of salvation. Salvation is through Him (Christ Jesus) and through Him alone.
“It is a trustworthy saying and deserving full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost.”
“Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
