Sermon Tone Analysis

The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Three: A Matter of Life and Death (John 3))

On January 6, 1850, a snowstorm almost crippled the city of Colchester, England; and a teenage boy was unable to get to the church he usually attended.

So he made his way to a nearby Primitive Methodist chapel, where an ill-prepared layman was substituting for the absent preacher.

His text was Isaiah 45:22—“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.”

For many months this young teenager had been miserable and under deep conviction; but though he had been reared in church (both his father and grandfather were preachers), he did not have the assurance of salvation.The unprepared substitute minister did not have much to say, so he kept repeating the text.

“A man need not go to college to learn to look,” he shouted.

“Anyone can look—a child can look!”

About that time, he saw the visitor sitting to one side, and he pointed at him and said, “Young man, you look very miserable.

Young man, look to Jesus Christ!”The young man did look by faith, and that was how the great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon was converted.

Let’s see what Charles Spurgeon had to say about this verse:

“I was very greatly surprised the other day, in looking over the list of texts from which I have preached, to find that I have no record of ever having spoken from this verse.

This is all the more singular, because I can truly say that it might be put in the forefront of all my volumes of discourses as the sole topic of my life’s ministry.”

— Spurgeon

I love what he says next:

“What was there in the world that God should love it?”

— Spurgeon

“There was nothing lovable in it.

No fragrant flower grew in that arid desert.

Enmity to him, hatred to his truth, disregard of his law, rebellion against his commandments; those were the thorns and briars which covered the waste land; but no desirable thing blossomed there.”

Yet… “God Loved the world”

“Where did that Love come from?”

From Himself… It is God’s nature to Love.

“God has such love in his nature that he must needs let it flow forth to a world perishing by its own wilful sin; and when it flowed forth it was so deep, so wide, so strong, that even inspiration could not compute its measure, and therefore the Holy Spirit gave us that great little word SO,...” — Spurgeon

God didn’t give because He had to… He gave because He Loved…

“Men who love much will give much...” (Spurgeon)

We measure the truth of that love by the self-denials and sacrifices…

“Love which spares nothing, but spends itself to help and bless its object, is love indeed...” — Spurgeon

That is the Love that God showed us!

Do you realize that Jesus was ALWAYS a gift from God?

The PROMISE of a savior was made in the Garden…

Can I tell you this?!

— In this verse, John gives us the Key to salvation… Do you know what it is?

Look at that verse again…

“Whoever believes in Him...”

We’ve talked about this word before… (it is the most misunderstood in scripture)

“Believes means “put complete trust in”

This should be translated: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever [puts their complete and total trust] in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

— John 3:16, emphasis mine.

That’s Faith!

“Faith, however slender, saves the soul.

Trust in Christ is the certain way of eternal happiness.”

— Charles Spurgeon

This is the faith that Jesus was talking about when He said:

I. What does it mean to believe in Jesus?

Spurgeon states:

It is first, to give your firm and cordial assent to the truth, that God did send his Son, born of a woman, to stand in the room and stead of guilty men, and that God did cause to meet on him the iniquities of us all, so that he bore the punishment due to our transgressions, being made a curse for us.

He goes on:

The second thing is that you do accept this for yourself

The Key to “Pisteuo” — to Faith — is personal trust.

— Salvation requires that we acknowledge the truth… then we must accept the truth… finally we must trust ourselves to the truth!

“The essence of faith is trust, reliance, dependence.”

This is why Spurgeon tells us to: “Fling away every other confidence of every sort, save confidence in Jesus.”

— Spurgeon

Jesus told Nicodemus:

This is a reference to Moses putting the Serpent on the pole in Numbers…

— We talked about this last week…

— The people weren’t saved because they “believed” the serpent was real… or that the pole existed…

— They were saved because they TRUSTED COMPLETELY in the PROMISE that God made to Moses about the serpent!

That is the same promise we have in Christ!

We are not saved because we believe Jesus existed… or because we believe God is real…

We are SAVED by putting our COMPLETE TRUST in the PROMISE given through OUR Christ — OUR Messiah — hanging on that Cross!

But that’s the problem isn’t it?!?

We struggle with placing our complete trust in God, don’t we?

— Now be honest…

This doesn’t mean that we actually hate them…

It means that our Trust in God makes it look so, because we place our Trust in Him above our personal worldly desires…

Faith in Christ means that we give Him EVERYTHING!

(Golf club example)

We have to give God EVERYTHING!

— our work — our children — our families — our devotion

— our desires — our relationships — our MONEY!

Look at John 14:1

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.

You [trust completely] in God; [Trust completely] in Me.” (John 14:1, emphasis mine)

That is what Moses’s serpent on the pole meant…

Over and over in scripture, we are told this same thing: “Do not fear, Trust in Me.”

Look at the story of “the Bleeding Woman” (Mark 5:21-43)

— tell story —

Look what Jesus says to her:

I can tell you from experience that God has set me free!

— from the bondage of addiction… anger… hate… selfishness…

— that doesn’t mean that I don’t still experience them at times… (even Jesus did!)

— I have seen Jesus provide for my finances… over and over again…

You can trust God!

What are you still holding on to?

What is He asking you to trust Him with?