God So Loved the World

John 3:16-21 God So Loved the World Introduction: John 3:16 is a verse that most of us have heard more times than we can count. It is THE most well known verse in all of Scripture, and it is probably so well known because of it’s simplicity and beauty, as well as it’s depth and magnitude. It has been referred to as the gospel in miniature and it surely is that. It’s one of those passages that we can become so familiar with that we lose sight of the magnificence of it. It’s a passage that calls for deep contemplation. One of our problems today is that we are far too busy. We have little time for meditation and our spiritual lives suffer because of it. From meditating on this verse the words of a well known hymn were penned: “The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell; The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win; His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin. When years of time time shall pass away, and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall. When men who here refuse to pray, On rocks and hills and mountains call, God’s love so sure, shall still endure, All measureless and strong; Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—The saints’ and angels’ song. Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.” 1. Why is the Love of God so Great? 1. The Nature of God’s love 1. 1 John 4:8 Tells us that “God is love.” Love flows from or out of God and has God as it’s spring or source. Giving what's good and serving the benefit of others is closer to the essence of God than getting and being served. God loves, because it is who he is. 2. God’s love is so great because God’s love is totally and completely undeserved - God loves us because he is love, and we are only lovely because he loves us. 2. The Object of God’s love -“God so Loved the World.” 1. That “God so loved the world” was an astounding statement in this Jewish context. The OT and other Jewish writings had focused mainly on God’s love for his people Israel. 2. God’s love for the world is to be admired not because the world is so big and includes so many people, but because the world is so bad: this is the the customary connotation of the word “Kosmos”. 1. When John uses the term “World” he is referring to the world as being an evil organized earthly system in rebellion against God and his kingdom. This is the world that God loves. 2. The world of men. The world of wicked sinful men. But not the world in just a collective sense, but each person individually. Rich and poor, learned and unlearned, talented and untalented, the handsome and the homely, the weak and the strong, the bad and the good. God loves people… all people. 3. God’s love is so great because all though we collectively and personally rebel against God, -not acknowledging his Lordship, or his goodness in our lives, or by actively working against him. God wants good and blessing, and fullness for us. 4. Though God hates sin, and sin must be and will be judged God still loves the world. He pronounces terrifying condemnation on the grounds of the world’s sin, while still loving the world so much that the gift he gave to the world, the gift of his Son, remains the world’s only hope. 1. We find this many times throughout biblical history. 2. Here in Ezekiel 18:10-13 God condemns wicked action, “If he fathers a son who is violent, a shedder of blood, who does any of these things 11 (though he himself did none of these things), who even eats upon the mountains, defiles his neighbor’s wife, 12 oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, 13 lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.” 3. But in Ezekiel 18:23 a few verses later God expresses his desire for the wicked to repent and live. “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? 4. Or like Moab: Moab will be destroyed as a nation because she defied the Lord (Jeremiah 48:26, 35, 38, 42) 5. Then he turns around and weeps over Moab - (Jeremiah 48:31, 36) “Therefore I wail for Moab; I cry out for all Moab; or the men of Kir-hareseth I mourn.” ; “Therefore my heart moans for Moab like a flute, and my heart moans like a flute for the men of Kir-hareseth. Therefore the riches they gained have perished.” 6. Example from Hosea: “The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels. 7 My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all. 8 How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. 9 I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.” -Hosea 11:6-9 7. In Romans -the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness (Romans 1:18) The wages of sin is death (romans 6:23) it is also true, wonderfully true that gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (romans 6:23). 1. See how great God’s love for the World? 3. The Demonstration of God’s love - “He gave his only Son” 1. The term “only” before “son” is the greek word “Monogenes” and is used in scripture to point to the uniqueness and precious value of the child; There is no other. 2. “Every time this term is used in scripture the stress is not on the fact that the person was begotten of the father or mother concerned, but on the fact that the father or mother had only one child, and that child was the one who was so sadly affected” -Brown 3. What John is pointing out to us is the costliness of God’s love. His Son was of invaluable cost, and yet “he freely gave him up for us”. 4. “No greater gift of God is conceivable because no greater gift was possible.” - John Stott 5. The Cost is even greater when we think of what he gave his Son for and what he went through; the humiliation of the incarnation, the life of a poor working class man, a life of obscurity, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, who was born to bear our sins, sickness and disease, who goes around preaching and healing, followed by a not so pleasing to the eye crowd, he is then betrayed by one of his closest friends, falsely accused, mocked, beaten, spit upon, his beard ripped out, stripped naked, skin lacerated by flogging, and then marched outside the city and nailed to a cross, dying the most humiliating, excruciatingly painful death; death by crucifixion. Dying, homeless, penniless and friendless. For what? That we might live through him! That he might be the atoning sacrifice for sin. That he might bear the dreadful curse for our souls. 6. Paul thinks correctly when he says, “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 1. Think about your children, if you have them. Can you imagine giving your child up to that kind of life and death even to save the best of people? No, of course not! 2. “I will only invite you to think of the sacred Person whom the Great Father gave in order that he might prove his love to men. It was his only-begotten Son—his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased. None of us had ever such a son to give. Ours are the sons of men; his was the Son of God. The Father gave his other self, one with himself. When the great God gave his Son he gave God himself, for Jesus is not in his eternal nature less than God. When God gave God for us he gave himself. What more could he give? God gave his all: he gave himself. Who can measure this love? -Spurgeon 3. “If Jesus Christ is who he says he is - the creator of the universe, come in flesh - then what we really have on the cross is God himself coming to earth and paying the ultimate price with his own life. He doesn’t make us pay; he pays the debt.” 4. “Is there anything offensive about the idea of substitutionary sacrifice? Is there anything wrong about it in it’s essence? I don’t think so. There’s no more moving narrative than someone willingly giving up something vitally important for the betterment of someone else. There is no more heart-melting joy than to know that someone else has sacrificed for you.” -Tim Keller 4. The Vastness of God’s Love - “That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”. 1. God’s offer is for any and all who would believe. There is no one beyond the love of God! 2. There is no race, no nationality, no ethnicity, no socio-economic status excluded. To as many as receive him, who believe on his name (John 1:12), they shall receive eternal life. 1. "The sins of the world without any exception, every kind of sin and evil is covered. There is no sin too heinous, no wickedness too terrible, no habitual failure too often repeated, that it cannot be taken away by Christ our heavenly lamb”-Milne 3. “The atoning death of Jesus is so massive that the whole world could come to him today and he wouldn’t feel at all depleted: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Ten thousand worlds, ten thousand hells, could come to Jesus today, and his capacity to forgive wouldn’t be diminished one single drop. He has a fullness of grace upon grace for sin upon sin, including yours and mine.” -Ray Ortlund Jr Conclusion: See how great the love of God! When God came into the world, he came as rescuer and savior, he could have come in wrath, but because he is love he came in mercy, he came bringing salvation. 1. Something that we need to remember about the Love of God today is: That God’s love is constant - God’s love for us does not wane. Today you are loved in this same way by God; whoever you are whatever you have done, whether you have done it willingly, defiantly, or whether you have done it in ignorance. Whether as a christian or an unchristian. You are passionately loved by God. My kids children's bible puts it like this: “God loves us with a never stopping, never giving up, un-breaking, always and forever love”. 2. Since this is the the truth about God, that he is love, and has displayed his love in Jesus Christ we as Christians are to be first and foremost a people who love. We love each other, we love those who aren’t a part of us, we love our enemies. One of the greatest calls of the church is to love, and we are to do this because this is the heart of God. 3. Then obviously there is an application to those who don’t know God and have not personally experienced his love. God’s desire is that you would respond to his love, by trusting in the work of his son. Jesus Christ came into the world to live, die and rise again for your salvation. God loves you this much to give you his most precious gift - his son. Will you receive him? Will you respond to his love? 4.