God's Love (John 3:16)

John 3 in Its Context: Nicodemus, New Birth, and the Love of God

You can open your Bibles to John chapter 3. As I was beginning to prepare for this, I ended up with like 14 points. And I was like, that's an hour and a half. So yesterday, I got ranged out early in the morning from work and I dwindled it down to nine.

So we'll be out of here in an hour and 20 minutes. Just kidding. I want to preach on a passage that's probably one of the most known and most quoted passages in all the Bible. Two of the most quoted and known passages in all the Bible by believers and unbelievers are the first, which is, judge not, lest ye be judged.

And I always say that in the old King James, that it holds more weight if you use ye. And the other is John 3 .16, and they always quote it by saying, believeth, as if it holds more weight by saying it in the old King James.

John 3 .16 has been put on banners. It's been put on billboards. It's been put on bumper stickers. We even have athletes putting it on the bottoms of their eyes. And then when those athletes have the opportunity to proclaim that truth boldly, they cower.

Sporting events. As a kid, I used to see a man in the basketball or in a football game, you remember this, the guy with the rainbow colored fro, and he would hold up the sign that said John 3 .16. It is a beloved verse, but it sits within a context.

It is a passage that can be preached on its own and can be exegeted and taught by itself. But this morning, I want to read it in its context, and then we will look directly at that verse and that verse alone.

I'm not going to ask you to stand because it is a lengthy passage. I'm going to read John 3 .1 -21, and the reason why I'm reading that is we often forget that this verse sits within a stern rebuke to a religious man.

John 3 .1, Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. He was a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God and as a teacher, for no one can do these signs unless God is with him.

Jesus answered and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?

And Jesus answered and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Do not be amazed that I say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from, nor will you know where it is going. So it is with the one who is born of the spirit.

And Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said, Are you a teacher of Israel, and you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.

If I do earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but he who has descended from heaven, who is the son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that light has come into the world.

And men loved darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, so that his deeds might be manifest as having been wrought in God.

The Love of God Is the Real Subject of John 3:16

Father God, I come before you now, standing behind your pulpit, standing under the authority of your word, to expound your truth to your people, for your glory, and for your honor, and for the worship of your Son, God be honored.

Give encouragement where it is needed, life where it is needed, in Christ's name, amen. I'm going to say right up front, that this passage is not to give the extent of the atonement. It is not a refutation against God's sovereignty and election, but without fail, when you speak with someone concerning election and the sovereignty of God and salvation, this is the passage that they go to.

That is not what this passage is talking about. This passage is talking about the extent and the greatness of God's love. And my hopes today is not to give you something new, or to give you something novel, or to try to implant with you some new truth.

My plan today is to encourage the saints, to equip the saints, in hopes that in the proclamation of God's word, that he would give life to the ain'ts. Because there ain't but two types of people in here, the saints and the ain'ts.

God as the Divine Lover

We'll begin, like always, the first verse, the first word of the verse, for God. And if you're going to take an outline, there will be nine points. This is the divine lover. We see right from the start, rats!

This passage ain't about you, and it ain't about me. God is the subject. God is the one who's about this passage. God is the one who is the one to be honored. He was saying this to Nicodemus, and he basically said, This is Elohim.

This is the creator and sustainer of all things. He said, Nicodemus, this is Yahweh, the covenant-making God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he is described as holding the universe in the breadth of his hand.

That is a huge God. He is also described in Isaiah as being holy, holy, holy. This God is eternal. He has no beginning, and He has no end. He is all-wise, He is all-perfect, He is all-knowing, He is all-righteous, He is all-good, and He is benevolent, and He is full of grace and mercy.

That would have shocked Nicodemus. And then, to go further on, He describes the divine love of this lover. He says, so loved. We take that little word, so, and we add much to that. For God loved the world so much.

That's not what the text says. That is an adverb. And yes, we're going to get into grammar. It is an adverb. And an adverb describes the action of the verb. The verb is loved. God loved, so loved. It would better be translated that God loved the world in this way.

That God loved the world in this manner. So that there would be no confusion of what so means. And translators have continued to translate that in the Old King James, because that is the vast majority of the way people know it.

But the word so means in this way. God loved in this way. Well, what kind of love is this? What kind of love is this divine lover extending this divine love? Well, in the Greek language, there are four types of love.

You have storge, which is not in the Bible. We don't see it. It is a natural affection towards your family. As a son for a mother, or a mother for a daughter, or a father for a son. Now, we do see in Scripture the alpha privative of that, which is the negation of that.

We see that in Romans. In Romans chapter 1, and in, I'm sorry, Romans chapter 12, and in 1 Timothy chapter 3, where we say they become unloving and unkind. So we see not the word storge in its original form, but a type of it.

Then we have eros love, which is a romantic, sensual, sexual type of love that is to be brought between a man and a woman in marriage. And then we have the phileo love, which is brotherly love, where everybody knows we get the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, and if you see what's going on up there, it don't look real lovely.

But it's friendships. Like my friendship with Brian, or with Andy, or with Keith. I love those men. And then you have agape. Agape is unmerited affection. It is not generated by an impulse or an emotion.

And I know often when you hear the word agape or agape, we go, oh, it's unconditional. Well, that's not altogether a best explanation, because agape is not unconditional. It's always conditional on the person doing the loving.

And we see that all through Scripture. You see it in the Old Testament and Deuteronomy, where God says, I loved you because why? Does anybody know? Because I loved you. He didn't say why. It wasn't anything in you.

You're the smallest nation. You were cast out by all the other nations around you, and I loved you for one simple reason. Because I did. Also see that in 1 John 4, verses 7 and 8, where he says two times that God is love.

And God is love in the noun form. Love originates in God. Therefore, we know that it's not conditional on anything that I can do that God loves me. God loves me because He loves me. We also have, in that same passage, the divine creation.

We see it in the world. It says, for God loved the world. Well, that's the object of the divine love. I mean, this is easy. If a child in fourth grade or higher was going to diagram this, verb, direct object.

Subject is what? God. Verb, loved. And what's the direct object of His love? It is the world. His divine creation. Now, the word here is used as cosmon. It is the word used for the created order of all things and its inhabitants.

But we love someone because of something in them. Correct. Twenty-five years ago and eight days ago today. Well, that sounds like something historical. Two scores and five years ago. Twenty-five years ago and eight days to today's day.

A young lady walked into my apartment. There was a band playing in the background. And I was awestruck. I said, that's the one I'm going to spend the rest of my life. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever put my eyes on.

And I was so for certain that that's the one. The person that I nudged next to me was my current girlfriend. And that was my wife that I saw. That was the most beautiful person I've ever laid my eyes on.

She was lovely. She was kind. She was beautiful. And I knew from the day she walked in that that's the one. Well, the world ain't like that with God. There's nothing in you that God should love you. We are fallen.

It says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We go on through chapter one and through chapter two. And God created everything and He gets to the end. And what did it say? And everything that He created was not just good, it was very good.

But then we move on to chapter three to the saddest chapter in all the Bible. Where a man and a woman join forces with the devil and rebel you throwing all of the created order of the world and all of the universe into corruption.

And we inherited that sinful corruption. Last week, Keith said that we do not deserve God's love. And that's true. We do not. I'm going to go a step further. And this will be shocking. God should not love you.

There's nothing lovable in you. There's nothing about you that God should love you. But He does. If you think God should love you, then you deserve God's love. Then you deserve God's grace. And we don't.

We don't deserve anything from God but punishment. The Bible says love not the world nor the things that are in the world. For he who loves this world and all of its lusts and desires, the love of God's not in him.

But what's the good thing about the world? Nothing. You could even back up into John. Let me just back up here to John chapter 1. It says in John chapter 1 verses 9, and there was the true light. It talks about Jesus becoming flesh and coming into the world.

It says that the true light which coming to the world enlightens every man. He was in the world and the world was made through Him and the world did not know Him. He came into His own and His own received Him not.

He came into the very thing that He made. He came and graced us, the world, with His presence full of grace and truth and the world rejected Him. And ultimately, they put Him on a tree and murdered Him.

And we even read in there at the end of John chapter 3 in verses 20 -21 that the world was an enmity against God. There's nothing good about the world. There's nothing good about you. There's nothing good about me.

Human Sinfulness and the Need for Grace

Now I'm going to do a little audience participation. I'm not going to ask everybody to make a train and we're going to get on the Jesus train. But I am going to ask you to do this. Raise your hand. Not yet.

How many in here have told one lie? Raise your hand. At least one. At least one. Leave your hand up. Don't put it down. How many people have stolen something regardless of value? Paper, clip, pen. How many have took something to eat that your mama told you not to?

Yep, raise your hands. Now you're lying. How many has ever had one unclean thought? Leave your hands up. I want you to look around. Look around. Look at the people next to you. Liars. Thieves. Unclean people.

You can put your hands down. We'll look charismatic if they're watching. Liars and thieves. Everybody in here. It's not good people. That's not lovable. There's nothing lovely about us. And God loves us.

We are unlovable. We are at war with God apart from Jesus Christ. We have hatred for His truth, disregard for His law, and we are in blatant rebellion against His commandments. That's the world that Jesus Christ came into.

That's the world that God expressed love. But then we see the divine act of God. It says, for God so loved the world that He gave. This act of sacrificial giving, this act of giving takes the idea of gifting to someone something.

Nicodemus knew that Jesus came from God. He says, no man can do these things lest he is with God. And he said before, Teacher, we know that you have come from God. So Nicodemus knew that Jesus was not just some willy-nilly street preacher.

He knew that He was preaching the truth, and He had come in truth. And he knew that Jesus was the only one that had the answers that he needed to know about righteousness. And he rejected those when he says, Hey, how can a man be born again?

Look, we know Nicodemus was not a dummy. He was a smart man. He was part of the Sanhedrin. He was part of the rulers. He was the teacher of Israel. He was not a dumb man. But he rejected that. That's why Jesus said, Hey, I have told you earthly things and you won't believe it.

And now you want me to fill you in with some heavenly things and you won't believe it? So he knew. And when he says to him, Nicodemus, God so loved the world that He gave His Son. He was telling Nicodemus, Look, God sent His Son into the world not as some hostage negotiation.

He sent His Son into a violent, hostile world to redeem sinners. And that the world was bigger than the Jewish people. Look, you understand that Nicodemus had no idea that God would have loved anybody else but the Jews.

And if you don't believe that, you don't read your Bible correctly. Remember when Andy preached on the woman at the well just a few weeks ago? And he talked about the great divide and the racism between the Jews and the rest of the world.

Look, you had the Jews and you had everybody else who was unclaimed. So when he heard that God loved the world and gave His Son to the world, that would have been shocking to Nicodemus. Because there was more to the world than that little land in Palestine.

This divine act was to show that God sent His Son into the world not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom. That's what Jesus said. Why did He give His Son? To give His life as a ransom.

And what was that gift? It was a divine gift. And that divine gift is found in His only begotten Son. The word used here in the original language is monogamous. And I think that's how it should always be translated.

Because that's the only way to capture what it means. Some translations say one and only. Some say one of a kind. But monogamous in the Greek language is the best way. Look, Jesus was one of a kind. There will never be another.

There's no one like Him. There will never be one like Him. We all become sons and daughters of God when we place faith in Christ. But you'll never be Jesus Christ. Even on that day when it says we will be just like Him.

You will not be God. You will be a perfect man and perfect woman. Empowered by the perfect Holy Spirit for all of eternity. But you will not be deity. That divine gift was the hypostatic union. Fully God.

Fully man. And God sent forth His Son in the fullness of time. Born of a woman. Born under the law. To redeem those under the law. But what does it mean to be redeemed under the law? They were all under the condemnation of the law.

The law could never give life. The law was never intended to give life. It was to kill you. Paul even says it in Romans 7. He says, man, I thought I was doing good until the law told me I was coveting.

And then once it told me I was coveting, I was dead. Because he was guilty. The divine gift was God's only Son. It wasn't like one of them silly songs you heard that God was walking all over heaven trying to find someone to go.

There was nobody to go. There was nobody that could go. The only one that could do it was Christ. And it says that God sent His Son. He was commissioned for a purpose. His only begotten Son came for a purpose.

And that was to die a sinner's death. To take the punishment and the sin that sinners deserved in their place. And it says here in the divine faith that whoever believes, whoever believes, in the Greek it says, hanapos hopistoun, can actually be translated in its... just like it says, it should be translated literally that all the believing ones.

All the believing ones. Not that, you know, whoever believes. All the believing ones. And you say, well, why do you want to get hung up on the wording? Because words have meaning. But the word believe is in the present active tense.

If you stop believing, you will die in your sin. And you're telling me, oh, here he goes, might think you can lose your salvation. That is not what I'm telling you. I'm telling you we live in a culture now where someone can say they believe in Jesus and continue to live in fornication.

Have someone say they can believe in Jesus and he can continue to lie and steal and cheat. We live in a culture now where you can have Christian homosexuals. Well, how long before we have Christian murderers?

You cannot believe in Jesus and stop believing. It's the perseverance that's saved. He who perseveres to the end will be saved. Now, not to get in a whole theological conversation and we can go off on some rabbit tail.

I'm not going to do that because I can't give you everything every time. But I tell you this, those who believe will persevere to the end and they will continue to believe until the day they see Christ.

And then where their faith becomes sight. That's why it says all the believing ones. I think I'll read that passage. I just love thinking about Noah. And what if Noah said, you know what? I believed you for a while, but man, I'm getting old.

600 years old. I'm just not going to finish the ark. Would that have been the non-drowning, sealed kind of ark? Yeah, you know, you need a little bit more pitch on the bottom, but you know what? God says He'll do it.

Would that have been saving faith? No! He had to finish. He had to finish the race. He had to finish the ark to get in the ark. He had to continue to believe. He had to continue to trust. And then, not only that, he got into that ark and trusted that God was going to do what He said He was going to do.

He continued to believe. He continued to believe to the end. Temporary faith does not save. If somebody says you can believe for a little while and then go your own way, and you'll be okay, you have your fire insurance, that person does not love you.

I was working in Sanford just a week or so ago, and I'm always attracted to foul-mouthed, vile-spewing, burly, biker-type guys. They just do it. I'm going to talk to that guy. He told me he went to biker church.

He says, Man, you're the most wicked Christian I know. I said, Why? He says, Because you tell everybody they're going to go to hell. I said, Your pastor doesn't tell you that? Nope. He said, For God so loved the world that He sent His Son.

I said, Did He finish? Did He finish? For whoever believes in Him will not perish? What do you think perishing is? That's hell. I said, That spineless man does not love you. He does not tell you the truth.

You must believe. You must turn from your sin. It says here, that whoever believes in Him, well, that is the divine sacrifice. We believe in the once and for all sacrifice of Christ. We believe in Him, that we find redemption in His blood.

And if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. Old things have passed away, and all things become new. And all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.

Not continuing their trespass against Him, He committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we're ambassadors for Christ. As though Christ were making an appeal through us, we beg you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

For He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might have the righteousness of God in Him. The in Him is none other than Jesus Christ, the fully God, fully man, sacrifice made for us.

Perishing, the Cross, and the Call to Believe

And then you have the will not perish, divine destruction. Apoliteo, the Greek word for destroy, to be utterly destroyed, to lie in waste, to be brought to ruin. Christ demonstrates and describes this destruction as eternal.

This is not, hey, annihilation. This is not, you're going to be consumed in a fire and eventually it will be over. Jesus described it as where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched. You say, man, how can that be?

When you die, your body will be lied into a grave and it will be eaten by worms. And those worms will die when your body is consumed. Your soul will never die. Your soul will be somewhere, either in heaven with your new body, forever with the Lord, or it will be in hell in a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth and where you're suffering.

Suffering for all of eternity. Imagine being destroyed but never being destroyed. Imagine drowning but never drowning. Imagine suffering and never coming to an end. That's how Jesus described perishing.

Revelation does it this way. But for the cowardly and unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, and any other immoral person, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, they will find their part in the lake of fire which burns with fire and brimstone.

This is the second death. You will drown in the lake of fire forever. You must look to Christ. You must look to Jesus. You must look to Him.

As the hope of salvation. It's interesting that in that same passage that Jesus points back.

To a very time that's not spoken of in Scripture much. He points back to this as to look to Christ. Look to the Son. He says, just as Moses was lifted up in the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.

Well, that serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness was because of the grumbling of the people. They had sinned against God. And God sent serpents. You can read it. Don't take my word for it. Go read Numbers 21.

And God sent serpents to go out through the camp and kill them. And the people came and said, you know what? We have sinned against God. They knew that those serpents were of the judgment of God. And He said, Moses, I want you to make a serpent.

I want you to stick it on a pole and stick it out in the camp. And when somebody is bitten, they'll live. It's interesting that when you read that passage, it doesn't say that they won't be harmed. It doesn't say that they won't hurt or that it won't burn or that they won't get sick.

It says they won't die. And He says, just as they were looking to that serpent as salvation and putting trust in what God had commanded them to do, they would escape condemnation. They would escape death.

Jesus says, you look to the Son and you will live. To escape divine destruction and the promise not to perish means you have to turn from unbelief. Turn from unbelief and sin and turn to Christ and His sufficient sacrifice.

Me and Keith use this passage when we're evangelizing on the street. I've used this illustration. But what does it mean to trust? And this usually helps. And I know every analogy falls apart so don't come at the end of the sermon and say, well, you know, this, that, and the other.

If a plane's going down, an airliner is going down, and your destruction in a fiery death is imminent, and you're offered a parachute to jump, you would be a fool to not put it on and jump. And don't tell, oh, I've got to be more heroic.

I've got to give it to the person next to me. Forget that for a minute. You'd put the parachute on and you would jump. And you would put all of your weight and all of your trust in that little old bag that when you pop that string, poof!

It may be a rough ride. It may be rocky. It may be jerky. It may be uncomfortable. But you know this, that when you get to the end, there might be a little tumble. But you're going to live. That's how you put all of your faith and trust in Christ.

You put it on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you jump from death, and you jump into His arms, and He promises He will catch you. He promises He will catch you. And we come to the end. The divine inheritance of everlasting life.

Everlasting Life, Advent Hope, and the Call to Repent

As a believer and a follower of Christ, we are guaranteed to live forever. And it's not going to be a life like Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes where we're grasping at the wind and where we're frustrated that the things that we did that we enjoyed are here today and gone tomorrow.

We're not going to be frustrated with the toils of life. But we're going to be in a new heavens and a new earth with a new body. And here's how Revelation explains it. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

And the first heaven and the first earth passed away. And there was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city. It was a new Jerusalem. It was coming down out of heaven from God. Made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne and it said, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men and He will dwell among them and they shall be His people and God Himself will be among them and He will wipe away all their tears and wipe away all the mourning from their eyes and there will be no longer any death.

There will be no longer any mourning and crying and pain. The first things have passed away. And then He who sits on the throne said this, Behold, I am making all things new again. And He said, Write, for these words are faithful and true.

And He said, It is done. I am the Alpha, the Omega, the Beginning, the End. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life and I will give it to him without cost. And he who overcomes will inherit these things and I will be his God and he will be my Son.

There is coming a day when life eternal will be no more suffering. There will be no more pain. There will be no more hurting. There will be no more fighting among men. But that is only a hope for those who are trusted in Jesus Christ.

Kids, I say it every time and I'll never stop saying it, your parents' faith cannot save you. You're not going to stand before God on the Day of Judgment and say, well, you know, it says here that for God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that my parents believed in Him.

It doesn't say that. You have to embrace faith. Faith in Christ on your own. Your own faith. Embrace Christ as your Savior. Old man, old woman, whatever category you want to put yourself in, young man, young woman, single man, single woman, teenage boy, girl, whoever you are, do not be deceived.

God will not be mocked. Man will deceive himself. And I would ask you, search your hearts. In this time and season of Advent, our hope is found in nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. The hope is in Christ.

And not to end on a dreary note, but I was reflecting on the hope of Christ last night. I looked at my computer and my eyeballs were going two different directions and just began to think about those that have no hope.

Oh, hope. Two men that worked for me this year. Two. One, five years. No hope. Hung himself in his own garage. Another, blew his brains out. Just six weeks apart from one another. No hope. No hope. They heard the hope, but they rejected it.

They heard the hope. They heard there was hope found in Christ. They heard that there was hope found in the God-man. But it comes with no strings attached. And I have said this in many prisons, many of drug counseling residential suites, and I'll say it again to here.

If you came to Christ for anything other than to be made right with a holy God, you will die in your sin. If you came because you wanted a better life. If you came because you wanted to have an easier life.

If you came because you wanted to have your relationships and stuff restored and just to be a better person. That's not why you come. You come to be made right with a holy God. Let's pray. Father God, thank You that You love the world in this way.

That You sent the monogamist, the only begotten of the Father who was full of grace and truth, and that whoever believes in Him and looks to Him for salvation, they will find life and life eternal and they will escape the divine destruction of an almighty God who will consume His adversary.

Father God, we love You. We thank You for the truth of Your Word. We thank You for the passages in Scripture that encourage us that, Father, that we can trust that there's no other name given among men by which men must be saved other than Jesus Christ.

Father, we thank You for this time of year that we recognize not the birth of a baby, but the incarnation of God. Father, we thank You that we have hope and our hope is secure and our hope is great and our hope is guaranteed in Jesus Christ.

Father God, I pray that as we prepare our hearts for the table, that, Father, we would search our hearts, that, Father, we would look to see if there be any unclean way in us, that, Father, You would help us to repent where repentance is necessary, to make ourselves worthy to take of the bread, to take of the cup, to be in communion with You.

Father God, we give this time to You. In Christ's name, amen.