Please turn up in your Bible to John 316 Even if you haven't memorized turn to your Bibles
When something is as well known as John 316 you have to ask yourself the question of why is this so well known? Why do you think this verse Is the most well-known passage maybe not only in the Bible but maybe in all of sacred scriptures especially in the Western world wise It's the most familiar Passage it's on bumper stickers and The football players I've even seen and put on their eye black right here. You've seen it. Why is this such a popular verse? Context of this passage is Jesus talking to Nicodemus about the new birth And about the kingdom of God and Nicodemus doesn't see it. He doesn't get it doesn't understand what Jesus is saying But he will later because Nicodemus is born again at the end and becomes a follower of Jesus Christ And so let's look at John chapter 3 verse 16 for God so love the world He gave his only son That whoever believes in him Should not perish That have eternal life Let's pray Lord Those are familiar words to many of us and we need them to become fresh new words You Holy Spirit or the author of those words and we need you to write them on our hearts We need to know your love for us. We think we know it, but we don't
Changes by your love Lord Melt our hearts that are I see cold hard hearts bring about new life and Holy Spirit you can you blow where you want to and we cannot see The wind but we see the effects of the wind just like we see the effects of when the love of God has blown into someone's life Lord we ask you to do that now and we trust that you can and that you will and so by your by your power Teach those and Convince those who've already heard and believed that they are loved far more they could ever imagine and those who do not believe Lord Capture their hearts today
Jesus we commit this time to you and your word Christ name. I'm in This is the third sermon in the Advent series and this is that if you're falling along at home. This is the The candle the the love candle will be lit this week It's a good time for us to remember, but Why would I why would this passage be so important? Not just at Christmas time, but at anytime For God so loved the world And it's sad how We've become so familiar with something it becomes you know, it's like hearing Free bird to us right That terrible you just turn it off. I have heard that song or you know It's like a rewind it's like it's like uh, it's a wonderful life at Christmas time. It's just sort of the it's almost cliche, right? But we if we miss this passage if we If we miss what is being said here That we miss Christianity and we miss the promise Of eternal life that Jesus offers us there there is no Christianity apart from this passage In fact it could be all the entire Bible is summed up in this verse For God so love the world you know who John was John was perhaps the closest human friend to Jesus John we called himself the beloved disciple the the disciple that Jesus loved He's not saying that he is better than the other disciples He was marveling at the fact that that Jesus loved him so much it He wanted everyone to know how much his friend Jesus loved him Was shocked by it. So he was defined by the love of Jesus Do you know that that the word for love here in this passage used by John is used 57 times by John in his gospel more than all the other gospel writers combined That in writing the gospel John chose Interpersonal one-on-one relationships to tell the story of Jesus's life and so here's the point The gospel of John The intention of this gospel and really the intention of God himself through scripture Is for you to ask the question today? Do you know and understand the love of God for you
And when I say do you understand it if you haven't been transformed by it as Parker said earlier you don't you haven't understood it For not being transformed by it you never arrive if the love of God is not changing your heart than you haven't understood it and so Don't look down the row at your mom's don't look at your college student hoping he hears the sermon or she hears the sermon You hear the sermon have you really understood or embraced God's Embarrassing love for you It's shocking. It's outrageous That's the question really simple question today. That's the point of the sermon Have you seen yourself as a true recipient as someone who is adored and loved by God this way Three points God's love is the first point Second point is God's love in Jesus his son And then finally God's love is forever God's love God's love in his son. I think God's love forever. Let's look at our first point. You're asking yourself that question God so loved the world The emphasis of the passage here is he so loved the world I Elsewhere John says and in his epistles first John chapter four verse that God is love So if we're going to talk about God God loving us and God loving you We need to step back and think about what do what do we mean by God's love And honestly this this week I was just scratching my head I heard people talking to me like hey, what are you preaching on this this Sunday, right? This is what you ask a preacher And I was like I'm preaching on God's love and I just I like I don't know and I don't know what to say quarter And so I came across this passage from Octavius Winslow Octavius Winslow was a preacher and teacher theologian in the 19th century and he really sums it up What he's saying here is there is love because there is God The reason there is love in the world And the reason we have any concept of love is because there is a god of love it It is not a human invention. It is not a natural thing. It is a super natural thing love is And he says love is not so much an attribute of God as it is his very essence
It's not so much a moral perfection of his being as it is his being itself He would not be God where he not love To deny that he is love would be to deny that he is God
He would not be God where he not love Do you see how inseparable Love is From God We talk about God's attributes You don't pit one attribute over God But this is even more central than an attribute of God to say that the Bible doesn't say that God is loving The Bible says that God is love in 1 John 4 8 So when we read the passage for God so love the world It means that God is doing something that it's out of his very nature God cannot do anything but love The sun shines God loves So Winslow goes on to say that his omnipotence that his God's all-powerfulness is the power of love His omniscience that is he's all-knowing is the eye of love His omnipresence mean that he's always present is the atmosphere of love His holiness is the purity of love and his justice is the fire of love Love is at the heart of God says J.R. Packer
See we think we invent things we You know as every generation thinks that they like started stuff You know as we're just copying every other generation With like a different haircut, right Like I remember when I was a kid just listening to music and thinking hey, this is new music and I said no That's like a cover of a Beach Boy song It's not new So I'm starting to realize that I'm actually saying that myself Because we as human beings think that we are the reference point So we think that that our little limited history that we have the starting point And we think the same thing about love that that somehow love is this human thing with the with the little hearts flying above us You know love. I mean love with someone love is is outside of us love existed before humanity ever drew a breath Love existed before the sun ever was shining love was there before the stars love is in eternity because God is Love I don't know how to say it
He cannot be anything but love In other words when we're talking about God's love we're saying that that love is God's essence So there really is no true definition of love Apart from the God of the Bible It's not only his essence, but It's infinite his love is infinite. No, we use that word infinite So it's like a preacher word infinite was it just means without boundaries or limitations If God is love and God is infinite then God's love is infinite God's love has no boundaries or limits This is hard for us to grasp because we are finite. We are created. We have Limits we think in terms of beginning and in but but when we talk about God's love It is expanding eternally in all directions forever and ever and it will never ever stop That's what Paul praised for the Ephesians. He desperate Paul was a was a pastor who was desperately wanting His people and Ephesus he said I want you to know how wide And I want you to know how high and how long and how deep and how great this love of God is in Jesus Christ that surpasses all understanding So when we think about love folks There's only so much that we can understand about it because we're finite Because it surpasses our understanding See we have small views of God's love Because we are small lovers
There is a completely independent sovereign being who made everything that has ever been made or ever will be made He has no beginning or end when Moses said whom shall I say sent me you this is a famous passage right Whom shall I say sent me God just says I am That's a verb I am who I am I've always been and so we ask our question who who has a name like I am And what is this I am like John says I am is love isn't that good news because I am could be something else but I am The I am is love Look at the ocean I feel so small
I'm thinking about a lot about the ocean this week Because I was trying to understand this sort of Something that's so big you just feel so small and I look out at the Gulf of Mexico right And you look on a map you can see the the limitations of the Gulf of Mexico But when you're standing in it you just see just you just see water and water for forever as far as you can see And when we're talking about God's character and God's love Talking about an infinite ocean of love and it's and our love is just a drop in this God's love has no beginning or end. It has no boundaries or limits That's why Paul and the other writers of the New Testament used this Faith hope and love together, but You realize that one day Faith will be sight One day hope will be like what we want we hope for heaven like one day you'll be in heaven You won't need a hope anymore. You actually have it Paul says who hopes for what he has But love is the greatest because of love never ends because to be in God's presence is to be in the very presence of eternal crushing alien love Here before the mountains here before the sea here before Memphis here before you Here before the USA here before mankind before the world before the Milky Way before the universe And love has no end date it is God's essence and it will never ever stop is your brain hurting yet Mine is it's supposed to
In fact when I was studying this week, I felt like I was on a holy ground Not that just I was talking about God But I was talking about his character Richie you be careful how you talk about my love
Don't make it small And so we just really should stand in all Be quiet when we're talking about the author of love But we will continue as we talk about this passage about God's love for the world But first we have to talk about the love of the Father for the Son In the same chapter verse 35 Jesus says the Father loves the Son You hear that Jesus Christ said the Father loves the Son we just talked about love it makes your brain hurt We can't get our arms around it when we think about if we really believe in a God who is infinite There's never an end of this love now think about Jesus Christ looking at his people and saying the Father loves the Son In Jesus knows exactly what he's talking about because he knows what the Father's love is like The Father loved the Son before anything else was ever made The Father has always loved the Son and will always love the Son and the Son will always love the Father And the Spirit loves the Father the Father loves the Spirit that is there is a triune eternal love that has gone on forever And ever and guess what it's not on our calendar We didn't start it and we won't finish it regardless of there was a creation There would be a God who is loving Father's Son and Holy Spirit and so when Jesus says the Father loves the Son He's like you better believe it That was his whole identity You know Jesus was the most hated person at one point Everyone turned on him his closest followers But you know one thing he knew my Father loves me You I'm not gonna trust I'm not gonna put myself in your hands because I know my Father loves me I'm not gonna listen all the fanfare if people want me to be a rock star or a king Because all I need is my Father's love that the fine Jesus Christ
No one has ever loved anyone Or ever we'll love anyone the way the Father has loved the Son this is this is ridiculous kind of love You think of those old couples The ones that really love each other elderly couples you look and you also have the elderly couples that don't talk to each other anymore You know it's like they've said all their words It doesn't mean they don't love each other but you also see those those elderly couples that no one's looking and they're still holding hands
I've been married for 11 years and I just think Wow, that is some deep deep love the kind of elderly couples that one dies a month after the other one Because they're so heartbroken It looks like just a shadow. It's just a flicker Of what the God of heaven The Father of all thinks of his son There's a special kind of love and you know you see this in the baptism and the transfiguration There are two times in the gospels where the Father tells everyone This is my son that I love listen to him This is my beloved son the one standing in front of you is my beloved son And then at the transfiguration you remember these two great events the Father says the same thing and Moses and Elijah the two like Biggest guys in the Old Testament are standing right by Jesus and you know the Father doesn't say that about them Here are these two luminaries and the Father says this is my son world. This is my son who my love Listen to him. It's a familial love. You see that's the closest that we can get to it, right It's talking to a friend this week Just found out he's having a baby boy And I told him I was like you already you already love this guy, don't you? He's just a little guy you don't even know you just you see a little x-ray, right You love a little x-ray I told him I was like you're you man, let me tell you some you're just a regular guy like me look you are about to experience Love that you didn't even know you had It's like a it's like owning this great house But there's a whole wing of the house that you didn't even know was was part of the house and you open it up And like I didn't know this was here. That's what happened A love for a father and a son that what happens is you just I just love you I just love just I just love you think about it parents
I just love you when I'm going to love you and we think about God's love it It almost feels like we're going to drown when we talk about God's love But you have to understand when we talk about God's love It was first and foremost expressed in his love for his son For God so love the world that he gave his only son
In other words Have really considered how much the father loved the son?
I don't know what else to say folks
Which brings us to our second point it makes it all the more shocking God so love the world that he gave his only son he so loved the world J.I. Packer in his great book knowing God said it's staggering that God should love sinners But it's true God loves creatures who have become unlovely and one would have fought unlovable There was nothing whatever in the object of his love to call it forth Nothing in us that could attract or prompt it love among persons is awakened by something in the beloved But the love of God is free, spontaneous, unevoked and uncaused
This God of love this infinite ocean of love that will never ever stop He places his affection on sinners
Packer went on to say that the Greek and woman world had absolutely no concept of this love In fact The New Testament writers basically had to invent a word called agape to describe this love Because the the world of the New Testament was filled with with Greek gods that maybe would lust after a woman But they would never love a sinner. There's never a God who would love a sinner I had to go back to that question You sitting right where you are with your story
Your heart is like an open book to God not to me or to anyone else Your life Every thought every word every secret is known perfectly by him. He knows you better than you know you Your life before God is unfiltered and unplugged
And that's why we're people of shame And that's what we have qualifications for God's love now. Maybe you can love me if I do this or if I do this Here's the shocking statement for God so loved the world for God so loved sinners. Yes, it's outrageous It's not for the potential of who you will be I used to collect baseball cards and in the baseball card pack occasionally you would get was called a rated rookie He was an up-and-comer that was going to be good So you need to collect his card because this is a rated rookie and therefore show your love to him by Collecting him because he's gonna be good. He's not he's nobody now, but he will be somebody God doesn't love you for your potential God doesn't love you for what you you will be Paul says God loved you before he made anything God loves you with the same eternal love that he always loves with he looked at you Christian And he said I'm gonna love you like you look at your son. I just do
That's why we over see but we overcompensate to hide from who we really are and we're all playing these these games We really are and we were ultimately playing these games with God and we self-rationalize And and we try to tell ourselves well not as bad as as so and so are not as bad as I think You will never understand the love of God until you you really begin to realize God loves sinners not not for you to stop being a sinner But God loves you because he loves you
Many of us are cynical but we think well wait what a second. No, where's the where's the free? Where's the fine print For God so love the world where's where's the fine print because we're used to fine print We're used to saying hey you get to you get a free week stay in Hawaii. Oh by the way the fine print is you have to buy a car first, right Well, you know, what's what's you're gonna love me? Okay, what's the way? Where's the fine print in this? What's in it for you? There is no fine print. This is what the great infinite eternal triune God loves looks like It surpasses knowledge God is love and God loves sinners
It didn't have to he could have destroyed us you realize that the God the holy God of the universe could have destroyed us after the first sin But he didn't instead he loved us because God is love
How do I know he loves me Richie How do I know he loves me? Doesn't feel like he loves me. I don't I don't feel lovable
I want you to think again what I said about his son
No one has ever loved anyone Or ever will love anyone the way the father loves the son. It's beyond our comprehension The way the eternal infinite God loves his son tells everyone. He loves his son. I want you to listen to me He gave his son for you
Don't sit there and go well on you. I know that Don't don't make this a Christmas world. I okay. I got that. I understand that. That's great That's part of the story if if that is not in your soul Changing you because God gave his son. It's like you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna hear this gift And you're gonna walk away from it say I understand that you don't understand this you you you fall on your face and say How could you do this to me? How could you do this for me? He loves you this much. He gave his son for you And I think of Abraham Abraham and Isaac I remember the first time I remember since Sunday school for whatever reason I remember these stories I remember the first time I ever heard the story of Abraham and Isaac With a little flannel board in the little the cut-out pictures of Abraham everybody's white. You ever notice that? It's kind of interesting. I'm not accurate But Abraham and Isaac and you remember the story and the the teachers tell me I I'd never heard this story And the teachers tell me the story about Abraham need had this promise And they're these old people they had gray hair And they're on their way from er of the Caldys on to this promise land and God says well, I'm gonna give you kids We don't have any kid. We don't have any kids. I'm gonna bless the nations You're gonna have so many children They're gonna be as many as the stars in the sky the sands on the seashore We don't have any kids in fact. We're really old and I know old people like us don't have kids And so they go and and and they wait and so much so that Sarah's like this is ridiculous like I'm gonna laugh at you God For saying that we're gonna have kids and she laughs at God's ridiculous And then finally you do you remember what happens? She's pregnant with a baby I'm hearing the story and I was like that's awesome. She's like I have a baby. This is really amazing story But then But then something happens that I had the most horrible visceral childlike response to
God says Abraham, I want you to take your son. I want you to take your your only son the son that you love
And I want you to take him to the region of Mariah And I want you to sacrifice your son as a burn offering to me
I don't mean sick at my stomach like what? Wise is happening and if I'm sick at my stomach. Can you imagine how Abraham felt As he's getting the wood and they're making the preparations are going up on this mountain It's like what is God doing but he's trusting God and that's this really awesome But like I can't understand how he's doing this That's like why is he gonna die? This is the promised son. Old people don't have babies and you're gonna kill him
Maybe it's so sick and then and then the teacher put the little the little ram on the flannel board. Do you remember? Like that's the most beautiful little ram in the thicket, right If you said but God said no, no you don't don't do it. There's a there's a ram for you And it was it's the it's the greatest feeling ever to know that that Abraham does not have to sacrifice his precious son
Because you love Isaac now do you know the reason? The God told and could tell Abraham you don't have to kill Isaac
I'm gonna kill my son for you and for Isaac and for Richie's session Why? Because I love you and this is what love looks like God gave his only son You hear the common wording Take your only son Abraham God gave his only son I think how often I throw God's love back in his face and I doubt his love and we do the great Christian if then thing If you really knew me God if if others really knew me then you wouldn't love me If you you you really knew me and really knew what I was like then you wouldn't love me You just couldn't because I'm unlovable and so are you
But you know what God says? I'm the infinite eternal and unchangeable God I spoke everything and being I know you man And I love you and there's no one like me
And the lower you are the more glory I get when I love you God loved his enemy Just steps away from where the Lord spared Isaac He did not spare his son
Last month I got to go see a show of a band that I really like a lot and Listen to it for like 20 years and listen to their CD and Learn some of their songs and all that kind of stuff But there's nothing like actually going to a real show and and actually listening to the original I've never seen these guys at listening to the real artist play their music before you they they wrote the song and they're singing the song And there's something so special about the original artist playing the site sounds a certain way Here's what I'm saying when Jesus of Nazareth was stretched out naked on a cross and he cried out my God My God why have you forsaken me? It was love in the flesh the original artist of love saying world This is love. I've come to invade you Because the father turned his back on him for you
Do you deserve it? Of course you don't deserve it That's why Christmas is so great Not because of being cross be an egg-nog
It's because the rescuer came
Final point Forever and ever life For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life Whoever believes in him whoever believes in him
Whoever believes in him That the word believe in here just simply trusting him Shifting your confidence in yourself and your goodness to Jesus. That's it See we're used to merit-based relationships That's what we struggle with this so much But that's not how God works. He says just believe in Jesus just follow Jesus just love Jesus believe that Jesus died for you You must be born again. Well, how can I have that you must be born again? That's what Jesus tells Nicodemus you you can't see this without the miracle happening to you Do you think maybe you were here for a reason if you don't believe this that maybe the Holy Spirit would blow into your life That he's blown into my life and he blown into so many other people's lives that he would change your heart
So just believe this is like a child This is just like a child This is so free. Where's the front? This is it. It's just like a child Just believe believe God loves you in Jesus entrusted Think about my son Every single morning. This is to picture of childlike faith every single morning The boy walks down and he sits at the breakfast table with his bad head And he's sitting there and he knows that within a matter of minutes There's going to be something that he can eat right in front of him He's just so wonderfully just sort of sister and goes
He can't have any money. He can't buy food. He can't make anything He has no concept of these things. He just knows I'm sitting here And I know that my mom loves you so much that she's going to give me a breakfast bar
She's going to feed me like I'm going to I'm going to eat So I'm just trust this And folks Jesus says unless you come to me and just sit at my table and believe that faith you will never come to me And you know what this means? It turns our values upside down because it doesn't matter how good or smart Or cool or great that you are in this world those things don't matter What matters is that you come to him like a child coming to his mother for breakfast and saying please feed me because God loves to feed you He brings glory to himself by feeding you
He said you will not perish if you believe in me You're not perish. Folks the power of the gospel only has power if it's true And look it's highly offensive because it is highly true Yes, if you do not believe in the Sun If you do not believe in Jesus Christ There is Parishing for you Let me say that again to reject the Sun is to reject life Well, how could that be that's so offensive? It sounds so exclusive because it's so crazy true Jesus is exactly who he says he is and to reject the Sun is to reject life itself If Jesus Christ is the very picture of God's infinite ocean of love To reject him is to your eternal peril. It is to face the wrath of God He sent his son to take the wrath of his people and to not trust in the Sun is to have gods as Jesus says God's wrath abide upon you
don't reject the mysterious and awesome love of God any more come to breakfast and receive it For gods so love the world give them eternal life
When you're taking your kids to the To the ocean you have to be careful early on because you know the oceans a scary place We've talked about the ocean today and they're just weighed in remember they just get the toes in just right there Close a little bit of toes right there on the sand where the wet part goes Then they get a little bit further, but they don't get much further than their knee right because or at least my kids don't because they were scared of how great the ocean is and you just weighed in something that is so massive and so wonderful when we're talking about the eternal life that the love of God has promised us Folks, we are waiting in the Gulf of Mexico. We are Let's talk Paul said no ear has heard no eye has seen no mind has ever conceived what God has prepared for those who love him But you love it when people say just wait I love people say that if it's good Just oh just wait. Oh, oh just wait
You think to yourself. I want to be a more loving person Because with this I want to be I want to be a more loving person Well, of course you want to be more loving person. That's what every person wants to be like who's not gonna have that is somewhere on your list Of of news resolutions like I want to be a more loving person if if that's not something for 2012 then like it's wrong with you, right? I want to be more loving person And you want to manifest that love that really is what we're called to do That's what we're called to do is to show God's love to everyone we meet I want to do that. I want to be able to do that. I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus I want to show God's love through me. I want to live it Here's what this passage is saying and here's what the entire gospel of John is saying and all his epistles and scripture itself You will not be more loving until you have been more loved
You have to be more loved and here's what I'm realizing folks. I love Wiley Coyote in the road runner I love it, but it draws me crazy because He can never catch the road runner He buys the dynamite and he does all this stuff But he can never catch the road runner my whole life is like so frustrating He can never catch that silly road runner a coyote he's hungry in the desert He wants to catch the road runner, but he never can catch the road runner and have this angst because he can never catch him But that's a silly example of this. I can't catch God's love. I can't stop it. I can't get it In other words, you're never going to out rub the love of God for you. So surrender That's you. God so love the world He gave His Son That whoever Whoever bullies in him Will not perish But I've ever lasting life It's right Lord we often talk about revival in our churches and revival in our city and revival in our country And we'll be honest. We just kind of don't know what maybe even that means or what that looks like But Lord, we know it starts with being loved by you To know you is to be loved by you
We need to believe it God
Would you show your love to us that we might show it to others Now we might love one another Jesus made me cry on the end