GOD SO LOVED

GOD SO LOVED John 3:16 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; David G. Benner, Surrender to Love; E. V. Hill, "God at His Best"; Anne Graham Lotz, My Heart's Cry; Max Lucado, A Love Worth Giving; John MacArthur, Jr., The Love of God November 16, 2003 [Additional Notes] Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory I'm sure you've noticed that someone shows up at almost every major American sporting event, in the center of the television camera's view, holding a sign that reads "John 3:16." At the World Series, the sign can normally be spotted right behind home plate. At the Superbowl, someone holding the sign inevitably has seats near the end zone and between the goalposts. And in the NBA playoffs, the ubiquitous banner can be seen somewhere in the front-row seats. How these people always manage to get prime seats is a mystery. But someone is always there, often wearing a multicolored wig to call attention to himself. A couple of years ago, one of the men who regularly was seen at games with his John 3:16 sign got on camera in a different way. He barricaded himself in a Los Angeles hotel room and held police at bay until he was permitted to make a statement on television. It was a surrealistic image-here was someone who felt his mission in life was declaring John 3:16, and he was waving a gun, threatening police and spouting biblical slogans on live television. His career of attending major sporting events abruptly ended when police took him into custody without further incident. John MacArthur wrote: "As I watched the sordid episode unfold on television, I was embarrassed that someone whom the public identified as a Christian would so degrade the gospel message. It occurred to me that I was watching someone whose approach to 'evangelism' had never really been anything more than a quest for publicity. Sadly, he brought a horrible reproach on the very message he was seeking to publicize." "I also realized while watching that episode that John 3:16 may be the most familiar verse in all of Scripture, but it is surely one of the most abused and least understood. 'God so loved the world'…has become a favorite cheer for many people who presume on God's love and who do not love Him in return." For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. This text is not so much a favorite because it is memorized, but memorized because it is a favorite. A sentence so pregnant with truth, that when it is spoken new life is born in the heart of both speaker and hearers. Martin Luther called John 3:16 "the heart of the Bible-the Gospel in miniature." It's so simple a child can understand it; yet it condenses the deep and marvelous truths of redemption into just a few potent words. "God" - The Greatest Lover We have come together on many occasions as the Body of Christ and offered our praise to God because of His greatness. The patriarch David has tutored us in expressing this worship: "Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom." (Psalm 145:3) God is great as our Creator and the Maker of heaven and earth. Trillions of atoms made up of trillions of subatomic particles make up billions of molecules of tissue and plant and rock and acids and liquids and gases. Billions of them organized by divine wisdom into created elements, animate and inanimate, that make up billions of planets circling billions of stars in billions of galaxies-and every particle, every quark, came to be when He spoke it into existence. He is great, but the creation of heaven and earth is not His greatest work. The great God made man and woman in His image. So great was He that He was neither threatened nor worried when He gave them this high place in His creation, when He handed us this awesome, terrifying gift-the power to choose obedience or sin. He is majestic because He placed us a little lower than the angels and crowned us with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5). But creating and empowering man is not His greatest act. God in His greatness worked outrageous miracles, insinuating His limitless power into our scientifically sensible space-time continuum. He proved His greatness over and over again in history, parting seas, providing manna from heaven and water from a rock, prophesying and fulfilling hundreds of precisely foretold events, birthing a baby through a virgin, healing the sick, raising the dead, confounding the wise and bringing pure Truth through human language. But His miracles are not His greatest work. God's greatest work is this: He loved those He made, and continued to love and yearn for them when they rebelled from Him. And when they were sinners who could not save themselves, He loved them so much, He sent His Son. "So Loved" - The Greatest Degree His love for humanity rose far above any eros or philos love the creatures could dream up. Agape love gives of itself to the most undeserving recipients without asking questions or demanding appropriate responses. He loves us all-those who respond in faith and those who go on repudiating Him. He knew that the only power to change the sinful human heart was the power of incarnational love. Catherine Lawes loved the inmates of Sing Sing prison. When her husband, Lewis, became the warden in 1921, she was a young mother of three daughters. Everybody warned her never to step foot inside the walls. But she didn't listen to them. When the first prison basketball game was held, in she went, three daughters in tow, and took a seat in the bleachers with the inmates. She once said, "My husband and I are going to take care of these men, and I believe they will take care of me! I don't have to worry!" When she heard that one convicted murderer was blind, she taught him Braille so he could read. Upon learning of inmates who were hearing impaired, she studied sign language so they could communicate. For sixteen years Catherine Lawes softened the hard hearts of the men of Sing Sing. In 1937 the world saw the difference real love makes. The prisoners knew something was wrong when Lewis Lawes didn't report to work. Quickly the word spread that Catherine had been killed in a car accident. The following day her body was placed in her home, three-quarters of a mile from the prison. As the acting warden took his early morning walk, he noticed a large gathering at the main gate. Every prisoner pressed against the fence. Eyes awash with tears. Faces solemn. No one spoke or moved. They'd come to stand as close as they could to the woman who'd given them love. The warden made a remarkable decision. "All right, men, you can go. Just be sure to check in tonight." These were America's hardest criminals. Murderers. Robbers. These were men the nation had locked away for life. But the warden unlocked the gate for them, and they walked without escort or guard to the home of Catherine Lawes to pay their last respects. And to a man, each one returned." Real love changes people. Didn't God's love change you? Weren't you, like the prisoner, blind? You couldn't see Truth and Spiritual realities. You couldn't see beyond your own needs. You couldn't see your purpose in life until he showed you. And you couldn't hear, either. Oh, your ears functioned, but your heart didn't understand. You'd never heard of such love and kindness, and you never would have heard of it, but God spoke to you in your language. He opened your heart with the voice of His Spirit. And, most of all, he set you free. You are free! Still free to run away. Free to harden your heart. Free to duck down side streets and hide behind trashcans. But you don't. And even if you do, you come back. Why? Because you've never been loved like this before. "The World" - The Greatest Number Romans 5 brings us the report: "…Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8) And He has made His offer free to all-the whole world. Revelation 22:17 - "…whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life." In Titus 2:11, the Word of God teaches us "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men." 1 Timothy 2:3-4 - "God our Savior…wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." And those scriptures accord with the teaching in 2 Peter 3:9 - "He is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." Here's the plain truth. Jesus died for every man, woman and child. He brings His free grace as a gift and lays it at the feet of every person. His Spirit pleads with each one of us to pick it up by faith and take it to ourselves. Those who do are saved; those who do not are not saved until they do. Have you received it? If you've not yet responded in faith to Jesus Christ, understand this-He loves you and does not want you to perish, but to come to repentance. And it makes no difference where you've been, what you've done, or who your daddy is, you are within the circle of His saving love. The whole world is. This is the heart of the message of John 3:16. "That He Gave" - The Greatest Act God, the One who created it all, the Primary Offended Party when man sinned, the holy and righteous One, in order to save us from hell, left the splendor and perfect beauty of heaven and stepped down the ladder into the cesspool of sin, becoming a man himself, and offered Himself in His Son, to save us. Two words summarize the cosmic drama of the incarnation of Christ - HE GAVE. How much did God love the whole world? He gave Himself for us. But how could God give Himself? "His One and Only Son" - The greatest gift God the Father willingly gave up His own Son for us. There is a tremendous mystery here in the Trinity-that God is One, but distinctly manifest in three different persons, but we don't have to understand all the mystery to appreciate the magnanimous decision God made when He offered His Son for our sins. If you could be kept out of hell only through my offering up one of my daughters or my grandchildren to die in your place, you'd have good reason to be worried. I consider myself to be a generous man, usually willing to make significant sacrifices for the benefit of others in need, but I love my kids. I would die for any one of them, but I'm not sure I would volunteer any of them to die for someone else. But God did! Imagine, if you love your kids like I do, and I'm sure you do, multiply that love infinitely because God's love is limitless. Add to that what scripture is at pains to emphasize here in the middle of this great text-that Jesus is God's "one and only son"-and we can only begin to appreciate the greatness of God's gift. One more thing-that world full of human beings He sent His Son to save? They had turned their backs on Him, dishonored Him, rebelled against Him and blasphemed Him. What's more God knew that when He sent His one and only Son, they would do it to Him again! They would malign and mistreat Him, spit on Him and scourge Him, curse Him and crucify Him. And yet, He chose to send His one and only Son for these His enemies. "That Whoever Believes in Him" - The Greatest Invitation We've already seen that this is a great invitation because of the universality of the offer - the whole world. But the Holy Spirit is adding emphasis here by repeating this incredible truth that whoever wants to be saved can be saved-whoever believes. I got an offer in the mail the other day. I was invited to come down to the dealership, buy a BMW and save $5,500! Nice offer, but I was mistakenly included in that mailing list, because I can't afford the other $35,000 the car would cost me-that's right! I couldn't afford to save $5,500! God's offer leaves no sinful human being out. There is no sin so terrible, no number of sins so outrageous, no sin so hideous or shameful that anyone would be excluded from this gracious offer. That is incredible. But look at what else makes this invitation so great. Receiving the offer is so simple. God does not require of us a complicated set of religious accomplishments; He doesn't expect us to clean ourselves up first before we can receive the salvation He offers us; in fact, He makes it clear that we don't even have to stop sinning in order to receive His gift. "…while we were yet sinners Christ died for us…" (Romans 5:8) Salvation from our sins is available to anyone who believes - whoever believes in him. Understanding this action of believing doesn't need to be difficult. We sort of practice it everyday. For example, if you were to sell your home to the person sitting next to you and he were to write you a check as earnest on the purchase, as soon as you accepted that check you believed in him. That is, to one degree or another, you trusted that he was sincere in his desire to buy your house. You further have trusted that he has the money in the bank to cover that check. When one believes in Christ he is saying, "I trust that Christ is Who He says He is, and that He will deliver on what He says He will deliver on." The Bible puts it this way: "If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. " [webmasters note: Romans 10:9] What the Lord is offering you is this: You are in a mess with your sin, and I must condemn you because I am perfectly just. But I love you, and have sent my own Son to pay your debt to free you from condemnation. All I'm asking you to do is trust Him. Trust that He is my Son and your Savior. Trust that He died for your sins according to the scriptures, was buried and on the third day was raised according to the scriptures. "Shall Not Perish"- The Greatest Deliverance To spend eternity without God in hell is a terrifying prospect. And just because it is so terrifying to people they often disbelieve it, thinking, "Well, a loving God wouldn't let that happen to anyone!" Yet, the same loving God insists on justice and says in the Bible that after the devil is "thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet have been thrown... Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:10, 14-15) Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me." (John 14:6) The plain truth is that when you place your trust in Christ and His death on the cross for you, you are instantly and forever removed from the list of those who will go into the second death, the lake of fire. What that means is that, through the atonement that Jesus has worked for you, you will avoid eternal death (perishing). The only thing that determines whether a person's name is or is not in the Book of Life is whether or not he has believed in the Name of the Son of God. "But Have Eternal Life" - The Greatest Possession The book of life is the book kept in heaven which records the names of all those who have trusted in Christ as their Savior (Luke 10:20; Revelation 20:15; 21:27). The promise to everyone whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life is that they will live eternally with Christ in the new heaven. That is where there is "no more death or mourning or crying or pain" (Revelation 21:4), and where "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (Revelation 7:17). Are you saying that I can actually know that I am going to go to heaven? Yes. 1 John 5:13 says, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." The promise of eternity in heaven with the Lord is not only a great hope as a future possession, it is also a present possession. Knowing where you are going to spend in eternity will impact your life dramatically in the here and now. Basically, the issue is this, will I plan to reject Christ and after I die, spend eternity in the torment of hell, irretrievably separated from God? I would I rather plan to live an abundant life of love, hope, joy and peace in this life and then, when I die, go to be with the Lord forever? Lyle Arakaki lives in Hawaii and he shares this insight: In Hawaii, because of the time difference with the continental U.S., the NFL Monday Night Football game is played in mid-afternoon, so the local TV station delays its telecast until 6:30 in the evening. When my favorite team plays, I'm too excited to wait for television, so I'll listen to the game on the radio, which broadcasts it live. Then, because they're my favorite team, I'll watch the game on television, too. If I know my team has won the game, it influences how I watch it on television. If my team fumbles the ball or throws an interception, it's not a problem. I think, That's bad, but it's okay. In the end, we'll win! "In this world you will have trouble," said Jesus. "But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). When going through trouble, knowing the final outcome makes all the difference. And it all turns on one decision - will you trust Jesus Christ to save you? A modern parable: A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art: everything from Picasso to Raphael. When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father grieved deeply for his only son. About a month later, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said, "Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart. He died instantly. He often talked about you and your love for art." The young man held out the package and said, "I know this isn't much. I'm not a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this." The father opened the package and gazed at a portrait of his son. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured his son in the painting. The father hung the portrait over his mantle. When visitors came to his home, he always drew attention to the portrait of his son before he showed them any other great works. When the father died, his paintings were to be auctioned. Many influential people gathered, excited about the opportunity to purchase them. On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel and asked for someone to start the bidding. The crowd scoffed and demanded the Van Goghs and the Rembrandts. But the auctioneer persisted. "Who will start the bidding? $200? $100?" The crowd again insisted on seeing the famous paintings. Still the auctioneer solicited, "The son! The son! Who'll take the son?" Finally a voice said, "I'll give $10 for the painting." The longtime gardener of the father was poor and couldn't afford anything more. While the auctioneer continued to pursue a higher bid, the crowd became angry. The auctioneer pounded the gavel and sold the painting for $10 to the gardener. An eager buyer from the second row bellowed, "Finally, on with the auction." But the auctioneer explained, "I'm sorry, the auction is over. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The one who takes the son gets everything. Conclusion John 3:16 - the greatest single gospel verse in the entire Bible. It's great to study it, it's nice to memorize it and recite it, but it will do you no good unless you respond to it. You see, we are all condemned already because of our sin. A holy God cannot receive us to Himself while we are guilty of sin. Jesus offers to anyone/everyone the opportunity to return to God and be reconciled to Him, because Jesus alone has paid for our sins and cleansed us. The two verses that follows John 3:16 are instructive: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."   [Back to Top]