SO Loved

I was reading an article a few weeks ago that had some advice for preachers who would be preaching a Christmas sermon on the Sunday closest to Christmas this year. They gave a lot of tips, some advice, but nothing quite as interesting to me as this: “Mix it up. Don’t preach from Matthew 1-2 or Luke 2 again this year. If people come to church on Christmas and hear, every year, the same sermon from the same passage in the Bible, you will bore them even more than normal.”

This, I thought was probably very true. And I can’t afford to bore you any more than normal, so I listened. I thought I would take the advice and “mix it up” a bit. Probably good to go with something a little less familiar so as to keep the attention of those listening.

The problem is, the theme for the 4th Week of Advent is “love”. Nothing is any more familiar than love. It’s been said if you don’t know the answer in Sunday School, just guess “Jesus,” “God,” “Love,” or “the Bible” and you’re probably safe. One of those is probably the answer.

“Love” as a topic isn’t very unique. Less unique still is my selection of a Bible passage. Even knowing that they are among the most familiar verses in the entire Bible, I couldn’t get these verses out of my head. As I prayerfully prepared for this sermon, I couldn’t shake these incredibly familiar words:

John 3:16–19 NIV

16 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

This is the most famous summary of the gospel in the entire Bible. You could ask most anyone what John 3:16 says and they’d get pretty close to telling you what it says (or at least the gist of it).

It’s referred to as “the best-known and most often preached verse in the Bible”, which is probably true, but can you believe I’ve never preached this verse before? Now, I’ve quoted it and referenced it and included it in a sermon, but I’ve yet to preach it. So here goes...

The sermon this morning isn’t going to be ground-breaking or earth-shattering, but let’s not forget that this passage of Scripture is gloriously, wondrously, amazingly Good News. And, what’s more, I believe John 3 is a perfect text for Christmas.

There are hundreds of passages I could have chosen to preach this morning; there are hundreds of passages on love. But there’s something about...

John 3:16 NIV

16 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.

Think about how this verse is commentary on the events surrounding the birth of Jesus.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were promised a son—John the Baptist—and were told that their son would prepare the way for the Lord. Upon the birth of his son, Zechariah praised the Lord in song, singing that God was going to come to His people, to redeem them. In other words: that God was giving His one and only Son to bring eternal life.

Mary and Joseph were told that Mary would conceive and give birth to a son, that they were to give Him the name Jesus for He would save His people from their sins. In other words: God was giving His one and only Son to bring eternal life.

The shepherds watching their flocks by night were greeted by an angel bringing them good news of great, mega joy for all the people; this, that a Savior had been born that day, a Savior who was the Messiah and Lord. In other words: God had given His one and only Son to bring eternal life.

A few days after the birth of Jesus, when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the temple, they encountered two people there, Simeon and Anna. When he saw the baby Jesus, Simeon grabbed the baby, taking the newborn King in his arms, and proclaimed that, in Jesus, he had seen the salvation of God. Likewise Anna was pleased to see the baby and gave thanks to God for this child who would bring redemption. In other words: that God had given His and only Son to bring eternal life.

I could go on and on (and maybe I should), but it’s beyond clear to me: just like Die Hard is a Christmas movie, John 3:16 is perfectly suited for Christmas.

What’s even more clear is that this verse is perfect for the 4th Week of Advent. “Love” features here prominently.

God so loved the world...

Don’t we tend to gloss over certain phrases? When we know something as well as we know this verse, we just rattle it off unthinkingly. I had this verse memorized when I was in early elementary school, but that was probably to win some memory verse contest or something, so I’m sure I didn’t pay real close attention to those words: God so loved the world...

We are so familiar with this verse, we’re likely unfamiliar. “Familiarity breeds contempt,” they say. And so it is. So let’s focus on God’s love here in John 3:16.

The Tense

The tense of God’s love stands out: God loved. God loves us, this is true. But that He loved us before the foundation of the world, before we were, before we had the capacity to believe or had been given the grace to believe, God loved us.

Romans 5:8 NIV

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God loved. Twas a definitive act of God’s will. God chose to love us—while we were still sinners. God loved us from eternity past. He didn’t love us with condition. He didn’t love us because we already loved Him. He loved us while we were unlovely, undeserving. Period. That’s it.

God so loved the world...

The Magnitude

Let us grasp the magnitude of His love. God so loved. No one can adequately define or measure that little word. How high, how deep, how wide, how wondrous His love for us!

So loved.

That’s a loaded phrase. There might not be any phrase like it in the whole Bible. It’s not just loved (ἠγάπησεν, ēgapēsen), but so loved (Οὕτως ἠγάπησεν, Houtōs ēgapēsen).

The unfathomable depth of the love of God is stressed here. God so loved. It would be enough if it said God loved the world, but it’s more than that. God so loved the world.

“I love you so much,” we often tell our kids because “I love you”—while it’s not wrong—just isn’t quite enough. Like you with yours, we loved our kids before we ever met them. We love them so much. Such is the magnitude of our love. And still our love is dwarfed compared to God’s great love for us, for the world.

The Scope

It extends to the world; that’s the scope of God’s love. God’s love is not limited to the people living in Israel or Galilee or Palestine, but it extends to the Gentiles, too. To every single kind of person: from shepherds to wise men, peasants and paupers, kings and world leaders, orphans and widows, young and old, red and yellow, black and white.

We must see the all-inclusive scope of God’s love. John’s readers would have been very familiar with the thought of God’s special love for Israel. But, in truth, His love is (and always was) indiscriminate, embracing every man, woman, and child.

What’s incredible—truly incredible—is that the world is fallen and wicked and in open rebellion against God; it was, it is, it always has been, and always will be. In the person of Jesus, Light has come into the world. And yet people still loved the darkness. They missed Jesus. They didn’t believe in Jesus. They would mock and insult, torture and kill Jesus. And still, He loves.

It’s against the background of this wickedness that God’s love shines out most gloriously. God’s love is to be admired not because the world is so big and includes so many people, but because the world is so bad.

The scope of His love is truly breathtaking, like standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, one can’t begin to take it in; it’s far too vast.

There are no out-liers to God’s love. No one, no person, no group of people is on the outside looking in. No one is outside the reach or beyond the invitation of God’s love. It’s for the entire world.

“Christmas is a reminder that God’s sovereign love reaches—prioritizes, even—the outskirts of humanity.” - Jared Wilson

The Nature

The nature of God’s love is expressed in the fact that He gave. God’s love for the world was not mere sentiment but led to a specific action: He gave His only Son.

It’s one thing to say you love someone, but to act, to give, and give selflessly expresses the nature of your love.

God gave to us His one and only Son, to be born to a poor, young couple in the small town of Bethlehem. God’s Son was given to us, born in the most humble manner imaginable.

Love is unselfish. It gives. Love, real love, every seeks the highest interests of others. The unfathomable depth of the love of God is stressed in that God went so far as to give up His one and only Son. God gave Jesus to us on that first Christmas day knowing that He was giving Jesus as a sacrifice, as one who would die for the sins of the world.

God gave. He didn’t spare His best. He freely delivered up Christ, even to death on a cross. The nature of God’s love is such that He could not love more; God loved us so, He gave to us His most precious possession—His only, eternally beloved Son.

The Design

Those who believe in Him will not perish; this is the design of God’s love. In the verses leading up to these, Jesus references a story from the book of Numbers.

At that point in their history, the Israelites escape physical death from a plague of snakes whenever they look up at a giant bronze serpent that Moses has raised up on a pole in the center of their camp. As long as they look to the serpent, trustingly, they will not die.

Jesus makes that point that those who look to Him will not perish. Many died in the wilderness from snake bites. Many more will suffer eternal death and be separated from God. But God’s people will not perish; this is by design. This is the design of His love.

The Benefit

God’s love is benefit beyond words: everlasting life. God imparts this to those who are His own. Eternal life is the life of abundant joy and immeasurable blessing in the presence of God forever.

Those who believe in Christ have eternal life and already experience its blessings here and now, not yet fully, but in some significant measure. The great benefit of God’s love is not just found in not perishing, but in not perishing and finding, in Him, everlasting life.

Eternal life, not condemnation, is the benefit of God’s love for those who believe.

John 3:16 NIV

16 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.

Oh, how glorious the tense and magnitude and scope and nature and design and benefit of God’s love for us!

We must believe, not only in Christ, but also in the goodness and fullness of God’s love for us. Once we believe in and accept His love, we will, Lord willing, take that love and share it with those around us.

You see, it is our great privilege to be loved by God and then to let others know how much God loves them—and boy, can we tell them all about God’s love—the tense, the magnitude, the scope, the nature, the design, and the benefit of God’s great love.

>I have lived a very charmed life. I have never doubted for a second that I am loved—by my wife, my kids, my parents, my grandparents, my church family, my community; even my sister loves me, this I know.

And, raised in church by two faithful and committed parents, I grew up knowing that God loved me. I sang the songs, memorized the verses, knew the deep truth that God, who Himself is love, loved me. I never had any reason to doubt; never doubted for a second His love for me.

I went to a college where all my learnin’ was centered around the love of God. I can express the fact that God loves me in any number of dense theological terms, and in a few languages.

But nothing screams the love of God more loudly than the cradle where Christ was born, the fact that God gave His one and only Son, born to die.

You are so loved. Do you know how I know that? I know how deeply loved you are because the cradle and the cross tell me so. God so loved you, and you, and you, that He gave His one and only Son; God sent His Son to you, to be born in that manger bed for you. God gave His only Son to you to stand in your place, to take your sin on His shoulders, to die the death you deserved.

You are so, so loved—incredibly, undeniably, undeservedly loved.

Say it with me:

John 3:16 NIV

16 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.