2016.06.26 John 3:
16-18
How God Loves the World
Good morning everyone…. It´s great to see you this
morning… I am glad you are here…. I have good news for you… His Name is Jesus…
It is Jesus whom we preach and proclaim to you today… He is Savoir and Lord…
I want to talk for a minute about preaching…
Preaching does not come after worship… Preaching is worship… When we preach
the Word of God we are worshipping in the highest sense possible….. We declare
His supreme worth and eternal value to everyone who believes… In preaching the Word of God… My job is to
1 see the glory of the truth and to treasure it… And 2 to rejoice over it with you… As I explain it to you and apply it to our
lives…
A church is a body of people who minister to each other…
Part of what preaching does is equip
us for ministry... God has placed us in the church… He plan is that the church matures
and grows through preaching… Yes. It is through preaching…. That the body of
Christ is edified and equipped… Then each
of you do the work of the ministry…
That is exactly what we learned as we studied Ephesians… That’s also why Paul gave
young pastor Timothy one of the most important and serious encouragements (Ernsthaft)…
and solemn warnings in all the Bible… They are both in the same text…
Paul proclaimed the Authority and importance of
scripture… Look with me at 2 Timothy ch3… we will begin with verse16 and
continue into ch 4…
2 Timothy
3:16,17 NLT Neues Leben
16
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to
make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong
and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his
people to do every good work.
16 Die ganze Schrift ist von Gottes Geist eingegeben und
kann uns lehren, was wahr ist, und uns erkennen lassen, wo Schuld in unserem
Leben ist. Sie weist uns zurecht und erzieht uns dazu, Gottes Willen zu tun.
17 Durch die Schrift bereitet Gott uns umfassend vor und
rüstet uns aus für alles, was wir nach seinem Willen tun sollen.
Here in ch 3… We
clearly see the Authority of scripture… Paul continues to proclaim the
importance of scripture…. It is a matter of life and death…
2
Timothy 4:1-5 NLT Neues Leben
1 I
solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday
judge the living and the dead when he comes to set up his Kingdom: 2 Preach the
word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently
correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. 3
For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome
teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who
will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the
truth and chase after myths. 5
But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of
suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry
out the ministry God has given you.
2 Timothy 4:1-5
NLT Neues Leben
1 Ich bitte dich vor Gott und vor Christus Jesus, der
eines Tages die Lebenden und die Toten richten wird, wenn er erscheinen wird,
um sein Reich aufzurichten:
2 Verkünde das Wort Gottes. Halte durch, ob die Zeit
günstig ist oder nicht. In aller Geduld und mit guter Lehre sollst du die
Menschen zurechtweisen, tadeln und ermutigen!
3 Denn es kommt eine Zeit, in der die Menschen nicht mehr
auf die gesunde Lehre hören werden. Sie werden sich von ihren eigenen Wünschen
leiten lassen und immer wieder nach Lehrern Ausschau halten, die ihnen sagen,
was sie gern hören wollen.
4 Die Wahrheit werden sie ablehnen und stattdessen
seltsamen Fabeln folgen. 5 Du aber sollst dir in jeder
Situation ein nüchternes Urteil bewahren. Scheue dich nicht, für den Herrn zu
leiden. Setze dir zum Ziel, andere zu Christus zu führen.1 Erfülle die Aufgabe,
die Gott dir anvertraut hat!
So in ch 3 v 16,17… Paul explains that the Word of God is like a mirror…. It shows us
what is wrong with our lives…. It corrects us…. Then God uses it to equip us… Then in one continuous conversation…. Paul
Tells young Pastor Timothy that the Proclamation of the Gospel is a matter of
Life and death… The lost need to
hear the Word of God…. Then in ch 4
v2…Paul says the church needs to hear the Word of God… He says…. teach, rebuke and encourage the church…
That means that the Word of God is necessary for everyone in this room this
morning…
How does God love the Word? Let´s look at
our text for this morning… John ch3…v16,17...
John
3: 16,17 NKJV slt 2000
16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not
send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
Him might be saved.
16 Denn Gott hat die Welt so sehr geliebt, dass er seinen
einzigen Sohn hingab, damit jeder, der an ihn glaubt, nicht verloren geht,
sondern das ewige Leben hat. 17 Gott sandte seinen Sohn nicht in die Welt, um
sie zu verurteilen, sondern um sie durch seinen Sohn zu retten.
The question before us today is How God loves the world according to John 3: 16,17...
It is necessary that we let the Bible define what it
means by love in any particular
passage… When I say… I love pizza…. I do not mean that I love Pizza in the same
way that I love my family… In the same
way… We should consider the context of the conversation as we think about the
statement… For God so Loved the World… It
is not possible for us to comprehend all that God´s love means to us in this verse... It is a wonderfully
condensed Gospel Message… But understanding the many aspects of the Gospel is a
lifelong effort…
John was known in the early church as the Theologian of the church… because of His profound wisdom and insight into the truth of God´s Word… He was also known as the Apostle of
Love… He speaks clearly and often of the Love of God… in his Gospel and in His
letters…
As we look at verse 16…
We want to understand what God means when the text says… For
God so loved the world that he gave… From this verse…. We see several important
truths…
What
does the Love of God mean in John 3: 16?
1 God
loves the world… All of Humanity…
This is not a human love… This love is of such a purity and intensity… That it moved God to give his Son to die for the
world… And Jesus was a joyful and willing participant in this awesome plan of redemption… John 10:17–18...
The clear
purpose and effect of God´s love… The effect of Him giving His Son… Is
so incredible that it defies our human comprehension… This loving action on our
part….. Changes everything… How Can He
love us so much…?
We
are transported from death to life… We receive Eternal Life… That is much more than
just a long time… It is a quality of Life that is rich and full and wonderful…
Who is elegible for this amazing gift…?
Look at verse 16… let´s look at the phrase… Whoever
believes… This is the next thing that we
learn from v16…
2
That means that God´s love available to anyone who believes…
God
gave His only begotten Son… so that whoever believes in him will not
perish but have eternal life…
In other words…. God´s love opens a real door… so that anyone who believes on the Son will receive
eternal life…
God´s
love can and should be proclaimed to everyone… God´s love reaches
out offering Salvation and Eternal life
to everyone who believes… God´s love is
so limitless that it will never run out…
What this love says is, “If you will believe in my Son, I
will give you eternal life... I can do this justly because my Son has cancelled
the debts of all who believe… If you believe, your sins are cancelled… My love
for you is freely offered… I gave my Son so that trusting him is the only
condition for living with me forever…
And so we say to every human being… “God loves you… And this is how he loves you… He gave his Son to die in
your place… so that if you would believe… your sins would be forgiven and
you would have eternal life…
That is what the love
of God means and promises and does in John 3:16… We are transported from
the kingdom of death and eternal darkness and suffering…. Into the Eternal joyful presence of God Himself…
And that’s why
this verse has been wonderfully used of God
over the centuries… It expresses
what we call the free offer of the
gospel… There are no limits to this offer…
It goes out to all people…. And Salvation is offered to every sinner… No matter how wicked and cruel…
God´s
unfailing love and Mercy… His Chesed… is open and available to anyone who believes
and trusts in Him… They will not perish but have eternal life…
Henry
Moorhouse and D.L. Moody story…
What awesome testimony to the power of this Bible verse
to save and to transform lives… John 3:16… For God so loved the World that he
gave… What love!! Amen…. In these verses we see the Awesome Love of God for a lost and dying world…
It is not hard
to see why verse 16 is one of the most famous… most often memorized verses in
the Bible…
God… Love… Gave… faith… Life… These are important words….
Words that carry powerful truths… God… Love… faith… Life… What could be more important? Today as we walk
through this text… I will comment on some of them… We need to understand them… so
that the full power and Awesomeness of this famous verse… Can have its full
effect in our hearts and minds…
So let’s turn to the first of these seven important ideas…
We will see how far we can get this morning…
1.
God
For
God so loved… Right away we see that we are talking about
Almighty God…. He is the all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of the universe… He
has set His love on mankind… He is
personal and not a mere force… He thinks
and wills and feels… He loves, and
he hates… He is moral…. That means that he deals with us in terms of right
and wrong… He relates to us as we are… Because
He is God and is moral… He is perfectly righteous... He only does what is
right… And He has infinite worth… To do
right… is to think and feel and act in a way that is in harmony with God… We were created by Him
to reflect God’s infinite worth... This is why We Worship HIM and Him alone…
All of us were made by Him… and our first and highest
duty… Indeed Our reason for being… is to
honor him and give him thanks… Romans 1:21…
Sadly… We have all failed to love and honor God… We were
filled with sin and pride and rebellion… And
unless we believe The Gospel and repent… We are all under his righteous wrath
and anger… This is what makes John 3:16
so needed and so precious… It describes the Great truth…. That God is
acting to rescue us from this lost and hopeless condition… He is by nature a Savior… Next we come to His Unfailing love…
2.
Loved… God so loved…
He
loves the world by sending his Son… and through Jesus… The Father opens the door of eternal life to anyone who believes on Him…
God´s
love for us begins
in His Sovereign plan… The Plan that he
made With the Son…. Before the foundation of the World… To know yourself
loved this way is the greatest experience of all…
With this love… God
does more than just offer Salvation… He overcomes our rebellion and disobedience…
so that these loved ones receive the offer...
This is when He
takes out our hearts of stone and gives us hearts of flesh… We are born again…. We hear and believe and repent
of our sins… We are instantly
transported into the Kingdom of His dear son…
We see this kind
of love in God’s raising us from
spiritual death and causing us to be
born again…
Paul called this
love of God…. Great love…
Ephesians
2: 4,5 NKJV slt 2000
4
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved
us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ,
by grace you have been saved,
4 Gott aber, der reich ist an Erbarmen, hat um seiner
großen Liebe willen, mit der er uns geliebt hat,
5 auch uns, die wir tot waren durch die Übertretungen,
mit dem Christus lebendig gemacht — aus Gnade seid ihr errettet! —
This is truly Great love… In this text we are
reminded that God´s love goes way beyond offering Salvation to spiritually dead
people… God´s great love conquers our deadness… And gives new life… It brings
us to faith… and unites us to Christ… And all of this in one sovereign instant... It is sealed with the precious Blood of
Jesus… It is Supernatural… And It will
last forever…
What love…. What mercy…. What grace… God’s great love has caused us
to be born again… He made us alive… That’s why we were able to believe… John
10:16; 11:52… Who is offered this love…? That brings us to the next idea in
verse 16… look at it with me… scroll down please…
John
3: 16,17 NKJV slt 2000
16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not
send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
Him might be saved.
16 Denn Gott hat die Welt so sehr geliebt, dass er seinen
einzigen Sohn hingab, damit jeder, der an ihn glaubt, nicht verloren geht,
sondern das ewige Leben hat. 17 Gott sandte seinen Sohn nicht in die Welt, um
sie zu verurteilen, sondern um sie durch seinen Sohn zu retten.
3.
Gave… For God so loved the world, that he gave…
Look at verse 17… v17 replaces the word gave with send… “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but in order that the world might be saved through him…
So the giving of
verse 16… is God’s sending his Son Jesus into the world from heaven...
His… is the Great Mission of Redemption… He will accomplish our Salvation by His Substitutionary Atonement
on the cross…
So when John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that
he gave… the giving is God sending his
Son to earth on a mission to die… It’s just as amazing…
4.
Believes… This is Saving faith…. Saving faith includes the ideas… to trust and receive…
For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes…
Three observations about this believing… This saving
faith…
This means that…
1… not
everybody will benefit from what Jesus came to do… They
will not demonstrate saving faith… Rather… only those who believe in… receive
and trust in Him… whoever believes in
him should not perish but have eternal life… The rest will perish… and they
will not have eternal life…
2…
the “Greek word” translated believe… pisteuō means to embrace something as true… and when it’s a person…
it means to trust Him to be who He says He is… and to obey Him… To do what He says... In the NT…. It carries the
idea of Saving faith… remember we are
still in Jesus conversation with Nicodemus… That is exactly what Nicodemus needs…. He
needs Saving Faith… He needs to be born
again…. born from above…. Salvation begins with saving faith…
Let´s
turn our attention to the next phrase…
5. Not
Perish… But have Life…
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish… It is important to see that
perish… is the opposite of eternal life… By
trusting Jesus Christ as your Savior… You receive Eternal life…. You are not
condemned… You will not perish for your sins… Look at v18… verse 18 describes
perishing as being condemned… Damned…
John
3:18
NKJV slt 2000
18
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is
condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God.
18 Wer an ihn glaubt, wird nicht gerichtet; wer aber
nicht glaubt, der ist schon gerichtet, weil er nicht an den Namen des
eingeborenen Sohnes Gottes geglaubt hat.
v18b…
he who does not believe is condemned already… That
means that God’s judicial sentence of wrath is on us as sinners… And we stand
condemned before a Holy God… Our sin and
damnation remains on us… Unless… We come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ… So we are already under
condemnation because of our sin and unbelief... And perishing means condemned
forever under God’s wrath... That’s what
perishing means… but as we see in the first part of v18… The perishing and the
condemnation… Hell is cancelled for all of those who do believe… the Good news is what happens to those who do
believe… Look at v18a…They Have Life…
John 3:16… And remember that is why
John wrote this Gospel in the
first place… Eternal Life!
This does not simply mean we exist forever... We are talking about a quality of life as well… Eternal life begins for us when we are born again…
This is life full
of joy in the presence of God… Wonderful eternal life that can enjoy God in
all of His Glory…
Jesus offers Eternal life to all who come to Him and believe…
In his letters…. John writes to the church about the effects of God´s Love in our lives… look at a
short example with me… 1 john 4…v7...
1
John 4: 7-11 NLT
Neues Leben
7
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God.
Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not
love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by
sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life
through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11 Dear friends, since
God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
7 Liebe Freunde, lasst uns einander lieben, denn die
Liebe kommt von Gott. Wer liebt, ist von Gott geboren und kennt Gott. 8 Wer
aber nicht liebt, kennt Gott nicht - denn Gott ist Liebe. 9 Gottes Liebe zu uns
zeigt sich darin, dass er seinen einzigen Sohn in die Welt sandte, damit wir durch
ihn das ewige Leben haben. 10 Und das ist die wahre Liebe: Nicht wir haben Gott
geliebt, sondern er hat uns zuerst geliebt und hat seinen Sohn gesandt, damit
er uns von unserer Schuld befreit. 11 Liebe Freunde, weil Gott uns so sehr
geliebt hat, sollen wir auch einander lieben.
John says…. Since God
loves you so much…. You need to love each other… The love of God does so much more than just provide us with a
Savior…. It transforms our hearts and lives…. So that we begin to obey Him out
of a grateful thankful heart…. We learn to stop loving the world…. We learn to
love the Things that he loves… The Love of God for us changes everything… We should be filled with worship and
gratitude to the Lord for all that he has done for us…
The
love of John 3:16 is an amazing gift of Christ to the world… so that the free
offer to eternal life goes out to everyone… Believe and you will be saved...
Believe and your sins will be forgiven… God’s wrath will be removed… you will
have eternal joy with him… If you believe… Today is the day!... Turn to Him
today… Have you done this… Let´s pray…
Communion
Danger
caution!!!! We want to once again welcome all of our
guests and visitors this morning…. We are very glad that you are here…. We are
going to celebrate communion this morning as a church family…. If you have
given your heart to Jesus… And if you are willing to let the Lord Jesus search
your heart…. And willing to Confess any
sin that is in your life…. You are welcome to participate with us…. In 1
Corinthians… Paul exhorts us….
Examine
your hearts… That is what we need to do this morning as we
prepare to take communion together… The
worship team will come forward and as they lead us to the throne of grace…. Let´s examine our
hearts…. The elements will be passed out…. Please hold them and we
will take communion together when I come back up here…
Communion is a picture of the fact that we are all in
Christ…. Every time we take communion… we take into our hands a reminder that
we have been redeemed…. And that we belong to each other…. We are members of
another… Jesus has saved us and made us one family in Him…
1
Corinthians 11: 23-26 slt 2000
23
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord
Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had
given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken
for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the
cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do,
as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
1 Corinthians 11: 23-26 slt 2000
23 Denn ich habe von dem Herrn empfangen, was ich auch
euch überliefert habe, nämlich daß der Herr Jesus in der Nacht, als er verraten
wurde, Brot nahm,
24 und dankte, es brach und sprach: Nehmt, eßt! Das ist
mein Leib, der für euch gebrochen wird; dies tut zu meinem Gedächtnis!
25 Desgleichen auch den Kelch, nach dem Mahl, indem er
sprach: Dieser Kelch ist der neue Bund in meinem Blut; dies tut, so oft ihr ihn
trinkt, zu meinem Gedächtnis!
26 Denn so oft ihr dieses Brot eßt und diesen Kelch
trinkt, verkündigt ihr den Tod des Herrn, bis er kommt.
