This is the WAY

Today we being a 3-week Christmas series called “This is the Way”.

Although this teaching has nothing to do with

“The Mandalorian” - a current spin off of Star Wars, it has everything to do with the significance of this phrase,

“This is the way.” As a matter of fact, this is Biblical language from one of the most beloved verses in all of Scripture, although you probably memorized it a little different way.

John 3:16 (NET) For this is the way God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

So that’s the BIG PICTURE - the Good News of Jesus in 1 verse. So, let’s dive deeper and see the significance of this and Christmas.

First this verse tells us of a great reality. God loved the world. That is - God - the Creator of all things - didn’t just experience an emotion we call “love”. NO! God demonstrated an ACTION of love. And this is the way God loved the world...

He gave His one and only Son. The Greek term that you likely memorized as 'only begotten' in KJV & NAS, is often misunderstood - and contrary to what some (like the Jehovah’s Witnesses) teach - does not mean first created.

The Greek word monogenēs, means 'one' (mono) 'kind' (genes) - one of a kind or unique, translated here as one and only Son.

HOW DID GOD GIVE HIS SON?

The unique - one of a kind - one and only Son of God would come to sit on the throne of David - 1000 years later,

after the divided kingdom, after the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, & now Romans - the stage was set for the greatest story ever told. Paul puts it succinctly:

Galatians 4:4–5 (NET) But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights.

There are 2 incredible truths I want you to see; one that we will dive deeper on next week, but this one: at just the right time God’s Son was born of a woman. As we have discussed many times, the term “Son of God” doesn’t mean God’s kid, it’s a term used of one who is EQUAL WITH GOD.

That’s what the first followers of Jesus understood, including the apostle Paul - when he wrote this - a passage that talked about Jesus’ humbleness & obedience in birth…and death.

Philippians 2:6–7 (NET) who though He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature.

Think about the significance of this.

Jesus was no mere man. He was God - who now stepped out of heaven and down to the earth. Rather than clinging to His equality with God (the Father and Spirit), God became a human being. I love how Max Lucado puts it - as I quoted from him this time last year.

Max Lucado: Stepping from the throne, he removed his robe of light and wrapped himself in skin: pigmented, human skin. The light of the universe entered [a dark world - my change]. He whom angels worship nestled himself in the placenta of a peasant, was birthed into the cold night, and then slept on cow’s hay.

Mary didn’t know whether to give him milk or give him praise, but she gave him both since he was, as near as she could figure, hungry and holy. Joseph didn’t know whether to call him Junior or Father. But in the end called him Jesus, since that’s what the angel had said and since he didn’t have the faintest idea what to name a God he could cradle in his arms.

Don’t you think...their heads tilted and their minds wondered, “What in the world are you doing, God?” Or better phrased, “God, what are you doing in the world?” “Can anything make me stop loving you?” God asks. “Watch me speak your language, sleep on your earth, and feel your hurts.

Max Lucado, The Glory of Christmas (Dallas: Word, 1996), 13-14.

God sent His Son to earth as a human being. That is HOW GOD GAVE HIS SON.

BUT - WHY DID GOD GIVE HIS SON?

And - as mentioned last week - outside of Christianity,

most religious teachings claim to show people how to get to God…

but it is Jesus who shows how God came to get to people.

The ultimate reason why God gave His Son is answered in John 3:16 as well.

John 3:16 (NET) For this is the way God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

You see, there is INCREDIBLE HOPE here, but there is also an IMPLIED WARNING.

The GOOD NEWS is that everyone who believes in Jesus will have eternal life! Those who believe in Jesus - put full trust Jesus, turn from sin, & follow Him - will not WHAT? PERISH.

But what about those who REFUSE to believe - refuse to trust Jesus, refuse to turn from sin, and refuse follow Jesus? They WILL PERISH. This becomes crystal clear within 2 verses.

John 3:17 (NET) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 

John 3:18 The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

Where do YOU stand today?

Have you believed Jesus? Is there evidence in your life to show that you follow Him?

OR are you CURRENTLY CONDEMNED by God?

This past week I had the privilege of talking with a man that stands at this same crossroad. HE TOLD ME “I have never had a personal relationship with Jesus.”

As I shared with him, I extended the truth of God’s grace to him, but I also warned him of what was to come if he died in his current condition.

As we enter into this Christmas season, may we enjoy our time with family, friends, food…and football, but may we take the time to pause and consider the incredible hope that the Christmas story gives us!

John 3:16 (NET) For this is the way God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

HERE to Serve You

PRAY

PLEASE PASS your votes to the inside aisle and we will collect them during this video; then we will leave here to tell others and Jesus is the WAY.

JOHN 3:16 VIDEO already on Computer