Sermon Tone Analysis

Celebration of a Gift

Maybe like me you were younger and watching a football game, and somewhere in the crowd of fans you saw a homemade sign that read, “”...

I can remember asking my dad what that was, to which he wasn’t really sure of the scripture reference, he was a new believer, but he thought it was a verse from the Bible about God’s love.

He was right.

Turns out this is one of the most, if not the most quoted verse of scripture by people.

In fact when asked, What is your favorite bible verse… the vast majority of evangelical Christians in America will quote .

It is widely known by those outside the church as well, and yet it is clearly not understood for what it truly means.

It may seem odd to be using this verse for the last part of our Advent series, but I would submit to you that this verse and really this passage as a whole best sums up what it means to celebrate Christmas with giving gifts.

that is the point of Advent...

Advent is (the coming of Jesus Christ, the first time, as a baby born to a virgin, miraculously conceived some 2,000 yrs ago)… Advent is celebrated by the church every year, and the world simply calls it Christmas, but it more than just a celebration of a feeling or an idea, it is actually a celebration of giving gifts to remind us of the true gift that was given to humanity.

Advent is the Celebration of a Good God giving a True Gift to those who are unworthy

When we say that God so loved the world that he GAVE… We mean to say no can compare to what God gives us, and we will celebrate this forever!

We certainly do not deserve God to Give us what he has and yet he did give us true Salvation in Jesus Christ and Eternal life… that is what the Christmas story is all about… it is not just a Manger on a silent night, but it is a manger that stands in the shadow of the cross, and it is for us who do not deserve it.

Yet before I break down our main text, I want to point us to another one that deals with God giving us a gift in an effort to lay a foundation for us to understand ...

In the reformation study bible there are some notes I want to share with you about “The Goodness of God” that we see here in this verse.

It is important for us to understand the Goodness of God if we are to truly see his gifts to us and value them above all else.

Every good and perfect gift comes from above… coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or Shadow of turning… Shadow due to change...

God never changes.

With Him there is “no shadow of turning.”

This suggests not only that God is immaterial and therefore incapable of casting a shadow, but also that there is no “shadow side,” in a figurative or moral sense, to God.

Shadows suggest darkness, and in spiritual terms darkness suggests evil.

Since there is no evil in God, there is no hint of darkness in Him either.

He is the Father of lights.

When James adds that there is no “shadow due to change” with God, it is not enough to understand this merely in terms of God’s unchanging or immutable being.

This reference is also to God’s character.

Not only is God altogether good, He is consistently good.

God doesn’t know how to be anything but good.

And while we see that God is good we feel a tension because we live in a world where there is a lot of Evil… How do we make sense of this and how do we reconcile this with the idea that God is Good?

We encounter affliction, misery, injustice, and a host of other evils.

Yet God in His goodness transcends all of these things and works them to our good.

For the Christian, ultimately, there are no tragedies.

Ultimately, the providence of God works all these proximate evils for our final benefit.

Martin Luther understood this aspect of God’s good providence when he said, “If God told me to eat the dung from off the streets, not only would I eat it, but I would know it was good for me.”

Now, what I mean to encourage you with by all this, is that God is not just Good in his actions toward us, but he gives us a Gift that is so infinitely good, there is no way to understand this season until we believe God is constantly good and will never be anything but good, and he offers us something that is so good we can’t miss it.

Do not miss the Goodness of of the Gift and the Giver… God!

We must believe that God is Good and that his gifts are good and perfect.

Last week we talked about the idea of the Incarnation, meaning Jesus coming as a baby is actually God wrapped in flesh… So really God gives the gift and God is the Gift!

We believe that Jesus is fullyGod and fully man, absolutely divine in nature, the second member of the trinity, he is God the Son… and he was given to the world by God the Father.

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Now before we really break down john 3:16, please understand the context… Jesus is talking to a religious leader named Nicodemus who is thinking Jesus is a good teacher from God, and Jesus is correcting him… Jesus tells him that he can’t See the Kingdom of God or understand Who Jesus is, You cannot know what I gift Christ is unless you are Born again, or made new on the inside… Look at with me...

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SO Jesus is telling Nicodemus that you must be born of the Spirit, which is something other than being born naturally into this world… and that this comes from God, yet it is like the wind blowing… It is mysterious and we can’t fully understand it.

Being born again, receiving salvation from God, is not simply a choice you can make, it is something that God by his Spirit brings to you… this also is a gift...

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So the Gift that we receive is not something we can simply make happen But God grants who it comes to… Like wind blowing and not knowing where it comes from or where it goes, the Gift of Faith in Christ comes from God… We cannot work for it or earn it… He simply gives it to us.

And going back to what Jesus said to Nicodemus, unless you are Born of the Spirit, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God!

And how do we become born of the Spirit?

By believing in Jesus as the true light that entered the world because God Gave him to save us...

Eternal life can only be realized by those God allows to receive the gift of Faith to believe in Jesus as the God who saves them from their sins.

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Understanding all this is necessary to get to … Our main text.

This verse sheds light on the following aspects of God’s Love.

Its Character (so loved)

Its Author (God)

Its object (The World)

Its Gift (His Son, His only Begotten Son)

Its Purpose (That whoever believes in Him should not perish)

let’s take a closer look at these aspects of God’s love, which is what we are really Celebrating this season.

Advent, Christmas is really a celebration of God’s Love!

#1

God’s Love - Its Character (So Loved)

The word SO may seem insignificant, yet it truly makes what follows here stand out...

The word SO here must be interpreted as “In such an infinite degree” and “in such a transcendently glorious manner” that it places great emphasis on this thought of God’s Love.

He SO LOVED… When we look at the original language here we see that the tense used for so loved is speaking of God’s love in action.

The idea is that it reaches back from eternity and comes to fruition in Bethlehem (where Jesus is born) AND at Calvary (where Jesus dies on the cross and is raised from the dead)… And is viewed as ONE, Great, Central fact!

God SO LOVED… That Love was rich and true, full of understanding, tenderness, Majesty, and yet it was self sacrificing and being given willingly according to His own Goodness and not our efforts.

He SO LOVED!!!!

#2

God’s Love - Its Author (God)

For GOD so loved… First please understand that the word used here is the same as the word used in meaning it is speaking of God the Father.

What you need to know is that God is ever full of life and Full of Love.

God is not Cold or clinical, God is not undefined or an abstract, a contentless essence, the Absolute of Philosophers… Rather he is the Fullness of ALL essence.

All things were made by him and through him!

I love what William Hendriksen said...

“If you were to take all human virtues, then raise them to the nth degree, and realize that no matter how grand and glorious a total picture is formed in the mind, EVEN THAT is a mere shadow of the LOVE-LIFE which exists eternally in the heart of him whose name is LOVE”

That Love of God precedes ours and is the only thing that makes our Love possible...

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God is the Author of Love, He loves us First and we love because of him… And in he is the primary author of his Love to us!

#3

God’s Love - Its Object (The World)

What is meant by the words, The world here?

Seems pretty straightforward yet there is some debate about it and it is significant.

Without dragging it out too much let me help you here.

What is meant by God loves the World...

Well first off, since the verse goes on to say,”That whoever believes”, it would clearly indicate that we are not talking about birds and trees, but to mankind.

So the World is not, The Planet and animals...

Next, we know from scripture that God does not love what is evil, so we know that The World does not refer to evil sinfulness in the world.

So the word world here must mean mankind, even though we are sin-ladened, exposed to judgement, and in need of salvation, we are still the object of His care.

So even though we are broken… God’s image is still, to a degree, reflected in the children of Men, his creation.

Mankind is like a mirror.

Originally this mirror was beautiful, it was a work of art formed by his hands, and yet it has now become horribly blurred because of the sinfulness that has plagued us in the fall of Adam in the garden.

Yet its creator still recognizes his own work… Mankind is the object of his love.

And yet mankind is fallen, the words “The World” seem to refer to an international Aspect, cross generational, through the ages idea… That God sent his Son Jesus to save people from every nation, every race, every tribe and every tongue!

And this is for all times and ages!

And while this is amazing, is does not mean that everyone in the world will be saved through Jesus… This is not some sort of universalism.

There will be those who receive him and those who do not, we call these the elect, those who God knows and calls from eternity past.

Listen, all those who God has chosen will come to Christ, who laid down his life only for his sheep, but not for those who have not been chosen since before the foundation of the world.

There is a portion of mankind who will reject Christ as their savior.

Yet Jesus makes it clear that the salvation of those whom the father gives him is not merely a possibility but an absolute certainty!

And this is the WORLD that God Gave his son for and So Loved!

As much as we all would like to say it is for everyone, we know that there are simply those who refuse to believe… The question for you today, is do you believe this? do you celebrate the Goodness of God in the Gift of Jesus as your savior this Christmas???

Because that is the point of this season.

#4

#4

God’s Love - Its Gift (His Son)

In the original language it would read more like this… That His Son, his only begotten Son, He GAVE...

While all the emphasis is on the amazing Gift, which is His Son, there is a verb here that screams out to us… His Son is a Gift… because God GAVE it to us.