John 3:16-21 God loved. God gave. We believe. We live.

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. If you have your

Bible, I would like to introduce our passage this morning, and I would invite you to turn to John 3, verse 16.

And as you are turning there, I found these words encouraging. Max Lucado says this,

John 3, verse 16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only

Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

This is a 26 -word parade of hope. It begins with God, it ends with life, and it urges us to do the same.

It's brief enough to write on a napkin or memorize in a moment, and yet it's solid enough to weather 2 ,000 years of storms and questions.

If you know nothing about the Bible, start here. If you know everything about the

Bible, return here. We all need the reminder. The heart of the human problem is the heart of the human, and God's treatment is prescribed in John 3, verse 16.

God loves, God gave, we believe, we live.

Let's read our full passage this morning. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only

Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

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.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only

Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

This morning we're going to dig into this passage, we're going to pull out some concepts, we're going to take a closer look at them, and we're also going to explore how this passage corrects certain objections that skeptics have about the

Christian faith. Now, I fear in preaching on this passage that some of you may be tempted to say, you know,

I've been a Christian for as long as I can remember. I learned these verses, I memorized this in Sunday school when

I was a child. This is basic stuff. You know, and I'm guilty of the same thing.

When I come home from church, sometimes I talk with my children about the sermon, and the first thing that I ask is, so what did you learn this morning?

I would like to just encourage you this morning that the goal of our teaching is not to just gain some new token of knowledge that we can add to our storehouse of biblical knowledge.

Our goal this morning is to grow in worship, to be inspired to love

God more deeply, to grow in our obedience to God.

We need to ask better questions on the way home from church. Let's ask our kids, not what did you learn this morning, but what did you learn and how are you going to obey it this week?

What did you learn this morning that gave you a greater appreciation and worship for God? And so as we look into some verses that are probably very familiar to most of us, can

I encourage you to ask yourself those questions? Ask yourselves those questions. Friends, we're not here simply to learn new facts.

We're here to share God's heart, to share God's holiness, and to share God's mission. This passage is a call to action.

For God so loved the world. As God loved the world, we are to love the world.

Not with the selfish, morally compromised love of participation, but we're to love the world with the sacrificial love of redemption, the love that God has for the world as we hold out the message of reconciliation.

Just as God, inspired by love, sent his Son into this world, so Jesus says these words in John 20, verse 21,

As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. God's mission is our mission.

And so at every point in this message, I'd just like to examine what God does and challenge us to consider, do we share the heart of God?

So as we move into a time of worship, I'd just like to pray for us right now. And so would you bow your heads and join me in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would this morning teach us beautiful things from your word.

But even more importantly, God, we ask that you would shape us in our character, that you would give us to share your heart, the heart of the

Father that longs for the prodigal to come home. God, we ask that we might share your holiness.

And God, we ask that most of all, we would worship you this morning with gratitude for the love, the seeking love that you have shown to us.

Holy Spirit, would you come? Would you meet us now in worship? Would you meet us now as we explore your word?

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So if you have your Bibles or a

Bible app, I would encourage you to open to John 3 .16.

And the verses that we're going to look at this morning will be on the screen in front of you.

So you can follow along up there as well. I will be reading from the ESV. So John 3 .16,

This one verse is so rich and there are so many things that we can learn from it.

We're going to pull out four things this morning. First of all, this verse teaches us about the origin of our salvation.

And specifically, salvation, our salvation begins with God the Father. More specifically, salvation begins with the love of God the

Father. It is for God who so loved the world that he gave his only Son.

Now that's important to note because there is a false teaching that says something like this.

People sinned and God the Father was very angry about it. God was quite ready to punish people but Jesus stepped in and offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins as a way of placating the anger of God the

Father. So in this way, Jesus persuaded a grudging Father to forgive us.

So this false notion kind of places Jesus and God the Father in opposition to each other.

But that's not what the verse says. Salvation for humanity comes from God the

Father. It was the love of God the Father that compelled Jesus into the world. A love that Jesus shares.

So there's no division within the Trinity. Listen to these words from Paul in Colossians chapter 1 verses 19 and 20.

For God, in all his fullness, was pleased to live in Christ.

And through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.

Jesus Christ did not come into the world to change God's heart. Jesus Christ came into the world to express

God's heart. Secondly, this verse teaches us the scope of God's redemptive love.

In other words, who does God love? Who does he wish to save? For whom did

Christ come? And for whom did Christ die? Now I want us to step back for a moment and examine the word.

For God so loved the world. This concept of the world, in the Greek language this is the word cosmos.

For God so loved the cosmos that he gave his one and only son. And I want us to just take a brief overview of how this word is used in the writings of John.

So it's used in a couple different ways. First of all, the word world is used to describe the created order.

In other words, this planet on which we live. In this sense it is a morally neutral usage.

So take a look here at these verses. In John chapter 1 verse 9.

The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

Or John 16, 21. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come.

But when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.

So one way the word is used is in reference to this world upon which we live.

Okay, pretty easy. But there is a second way in which John uses the word world in the

Bible. Let's take a look. John 15, 18. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

John 16, 33. In this world you will have trouble.

But take heart. I have overcome the world. In 1

John chapter 5 verse 19. We know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

In this sense, in this second sense, the word cosmos indicates the ungodly, unsaved multitude of the human race.

This whole mass of men and women who are under the authority of Satan. Alienated from God.

Hostile towards him. All of their places, all of their practices in which they exclude

God. That is what is involved in this world. This multitude of humanity.

The connotation here is decisively negative. This world, this human race created in the image of God but subverted, corrupted and controlled by the devil.

This human race is the object of God's love. This human race is the object of God's redemptive intention.

It is for the entire world that Christ came and it was for the salvation of the world that Christ died.

That's why we see verses like this next set. John chapter 1 verse 29. Or John 4, 42.

The Samaritans say this. And we know that this man really is the savior of the world.

Or even John 16, 8. Look at the Holy Spirit's work. And when he, the

Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment.

It is this world, this mass of sinful humanity that God aims to redeem.

It is this world, this mass of sinful humanity that shakes its fist against God. That God loves with the costly love of redemption.

Friends, this is our God. This is our God who commands us to love our enemies and he loves his enemies.

This is our God who loves the prodigal son and longs for him to come home.

Thirdly, this verse teaches us the absolutely outrageous cost of our redemption.

God the Father loved, therefore God the Father gave.

And it was no small gift that God the Father gave for our salvation. Jesus is the

Prince of Heaven. The very jewel of eternity. The one and only, the Messiah.

The one who was with God in the beginning and who is himself God. This is what God gave for our salvation.

Now verses 14 and 15 of this passage, as Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, we see that the giving of the

Son by the Father is not just sending the Son into the world, but it's wrapped up in the death of Jesus on the cross.

God sent Jesus to die for our sins. How great is the love of God that he would give his greatest treasure so that we might become his treasured possession.

How great is the guilt of mankind that such a costly sacrifice would be necessary for our salvation.

Finally, this verse teaches us the response that God requires of us.

When I said that Christ died for the sins of the world, that does not mean that every person in the world is forgiven, pardoned, acquitted, and granted eternal life.

You know, I once met with a student on campus. We were doing a little table outreach in the student center. And the student tried to make this argument.

Now this is not my argument. This is what the student was saying. He said, I believe that the sacrifice of Jesus is so great and so overwhelmingly powerful and effective that all people will one day be saved.

Whether they believe in Jesus or not, doesn't matter. Everybody gets saved in the end. That's not my opinion.

That was his opinion. That idea is not a new idea.

It's what we call universalism. And it is decisively unbiblical. This passage speaks against that teaching.

Only those who believe in Jesus are born again. The mercy of God is offered to all, but it is applied only to those who meet the condition.

And the condition here is faith in Jesus. Notice what the verse says.

Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. To perish means to fall under God's judgment, to be eternally cut off from His presence.

And that is the default condition, barring divine intervention, that is the default condition of the human race.

So what is this faith that God requires of us in order to be saved? Well, it's not merely a belief in your mind that Jesus died and rose again.

The devil believes that. Rather, it is a whole person response. Heart, mind, and will.

Biblical faith is the response of a desperate sinner who repents of sin, casts himself on the mercy of Jesus Christ for forgiveness.

It's the response of the man who says, Jesus, I stand guilty and condemned before you.

I can't save myself. God, have mercy on me. I cast myself on your mercy.

I cling to the cross. I trust you. I trust you alone for my salvation.

Theologian J .C. Ryle says it well. He says, But, if we will only come to Christ as guilty sinners, and believe upon Him, our sins shall at once be forgiven, and our iniquities shall be entirely put away, without faith there is no salvation.

But through faith in Jesus, the vilest sinner may be saved.

Let's continue to verse 17. A passage that expands on the previous verse, further revealing the heart of the

Father. Verse 17. 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.

Now, Nicodemus, like many of the Jews in his day, awaited a

Messiah who would come and execute judgment, God's judgment, upon the nations.

Consider this well -known prophecy from Psalm chapter 2 about the Messiah. I will proclaim the

Lord's decree. He said to me, You are my son, today I become your father. Ask me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.

You will break them with a rod of iron, you will dash them to pieces like pottery.

Now, perhaps with this passage in the background, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. But Jesus makes clear that His mission in coming into this earth was not to bring judgment upon the nations, but to bring salvation to the nations.

There will be time enough for judgment when Jesus returns at His second coming. But His purpose in this age is to save people from the coming judgment.

You know, there's a very interesting passage, one of my more favorite passages in the Bible, in Luke chapter 9, that runs conceptually parallel to John 3, 17.

So what John 3, 17 explains in word, Luke chapter 9, verses 51 through 56, shows us in actual deed, the heart of Jesus and the mission of Jesus.

So let's take a look here. When the days drew near for Him, for Jesus, to be taken up,

He set His face to go to Jerusalem. And He sent messengers ahead of Him, who went and entered a village of the

Samaritans to make preparations for Him. But the people did not receive

Him, because His face was set towards Jerusalem. And when

His disciples, James and John, saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven to consume them?

They were probably thinking of the story of Elijah in the Old Testament. But Jesus turned and rebuked them.

And He said, You do not know what manner of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy people's lives, but to save them.

Our Lord takes no death, takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He desires all people to repent and be saved.

And so just as a matter of application, can I ask us to search our hearts, do we share God's heart in this?

Would you rather see your enemies dead or saved? Do you spend your time angry about the godless words and godless behaviors of godless people?

Or do you pray for those same godless people to repent? Friends, Jesus will return.

That is certain. And when He returns, the stroke of judgment will fall on this earth and it will fall hard.

But until that day, we must remember that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

Rather, He desires that the prodigal will come home. But there's something else, another application to this passage that I want us to see,

John 3, 17. It's a beautiful truth. God is for us.

God doesn't desire people to perish. He does not delight in dispensing judgment first and foremost.

He rejoices when people are saved. He desires that people should flourish in faith, in love, and in fullness of joy.

The devil comes to steal, to kill, and destroy. Jesus comes that we may have life, fullness of life, abundant life.

Think about that. God is for us. He wants us to experience fullness of life.

He knows everything in your life. He knows what you looked at last night before you came. He knows the argument you had in the car with your spouse on the way here this morning.

He knows all of those things, and He welcomes you this morning. He knows the shame you brought in with you this morning, but He wants you not to experience

His judgment. He wants you to experience fullness and richness of life.

I hope that encourages you this morning. God's heart is for us.

Verse 18. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only

Son of God. To be condemned means to be under God's judgment, cast away from His presence, and rejected forever.

The Scriptures teach a man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. And on that day of judgment, there are only two options.

You will be justified or acquitted, or you will be condemned, which is a guilty verdict followed by eternal rejection.

But what you need to see here is that future, end of times, judgment day verdict is applied to people right now in our present age.

Right now, this morning, you stand justified before God, or you stand condemned before God.

And that verdict has everything to do with whether or not you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

Now, I can hear the skeptic say to me, and I once had a gal on campus.

You hear lots of things on campus. I had a gal one time argue with me about this.

She said, now, wait a second. Are you saying that God's going to send people to hell just for believing the wrong thing?

What do you guys think about that? Is that a fair objection? God's going to send people to hell just for believing the wrong thing. As if this were a matter of, well,

I guess I just kind of chose the wrong thing on the buffet bar, oops. There's some assumptions embedded in that objection, aren't there?

Assumption number one, God's not fair. Assumption number two, people don't really deserve to be judged.

They're really not that bad. We haven't really done anything wrong. Verses 19 through 21 are going to address those two things.

But assumption number three, and I want you to see this. Assumption number three is this.

It's a trivial matter to reject Jesus. Is it a trivial matter to reject

God's most precious treasure that he sent into this world to die for us? I want to share an example.

I hope it doesn't devolve into silliness. I'm trying to make a point here. Anybody want a candy?

No? All right. Most of you rejected my offer of a candy.

Should I be offended by you rejecting my offer of a candy? No, honestly,

I'm not. I don't really care. Why? Because a piece of candy, a breath mint, is not a matter of life and death.

Now, some of you are thinking, you are not sitting next to my spouse. It is a matter of life and death. But honestly, a breath mint is not a matter of life and death.

Furthermore, a breath mint costs me nothing. It has very little monetary value. I don't have anything emotionally invested in a breath mint.

I don't really care if you want my breath mint or not. Jesus isn't a breath mint.

Imagine that somebody came in here, poisoned those donuts that you all ate, and you're all dying. And imagine the only way for you to be saved is if my precious son, whom

I love, dies. And we have to harvest the cure from his

DNA in order to administer it to you. And so with great agony of soul, I allow my precious son, whom

I would die for any minute of the day, I allow my precious son to die for you. And I hold the cure now in my hand.

And you say to me, well, I'm really offended that you think I'm sick. How dare you say that your cure is the only cure.

There's lots of cures. I don't really know your son. I don't really, honestly, I mean, it's nice that he died, but that's a good story.

But, you know, I don't really believe that. Would that be, as a father, as a grieving father, would that be a trivial matter for you to say that about my son who gave his life for you?

Friends, God gave his treasured possession for you. It is no trivial matter to reject the son.

The greater the gift, the greater the insult in rejecting it. And there is no greater gift than Jesus Christ.

Verses 19 through 21. We'll move quickly through these. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world.

And people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed.

But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

These verses serve as a commentary on the previous section. And they completely clear

God of any perceived injustice. Salvation.

We have seen salvation is grounded in God's eternal love. It is enacted by God in sending the son into the world.

And it is intended by God for the salvation of this world. In other words, salvation is entirely of God.

Jesus is the light of the world. The light that has come into the world. So how do people respond to God's light?

Verse 19. People love the darkness rather than the light. Verse 20. People hate the light and refuse to come near it.

And Jesus echoes these same thoughts in John chapter 15 verse 18. He says, If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

John 7, 7. The world hates me because I testify that its works are evil.

And so what I want you to see this morning is that the problem with people, the reason they don't come to Jesus is not informational.

The problem is moral. It's not informational. It's moral.

Last week I had just a fantastic week. I had the chance in our campus ministry to lead a group of students down to Daytona Beach, Florida for a week of beach and street evangelism.

I was so proud of our young people. They did a fantastic job. And we just had hundreds of conversations with people in a lot of different contexts.

And I remember one man, actually I remember his name was Alex. He was very personal, very friendly, very nice guy.

Young man, he came up to me and we were talking about spiritual things. I remember what he said to me.

Very politely, very enthusiastically, he was very glad to be talking to me. He said, you know, my grandfather is really super religious and he talks to me all the time about Jesus and about God.

And he said, to be honest with you, I know exactly what I need to do. I'm just not willing to do it right now.

There's some things in my life I'm not willing to give up. Maybe later. Now that's a sad answer.

But I like that answer. Do you know why I like that answer? I like it because it's biblical.

And because it's honest. There are, however, those who embrace the truth and walk in the light.

And they experience a transformation that results in good works. Verse 21.

These works are carried out in God. That means a transformed life occurs in union with God and by his power.

You know, I saw on that trip to Daytona just verses 19 and 20 and verse 21 lived out before me in just living, vivid color.

I saw our students go up and talk to two men as they were walking on the street.

And these men were all tripped out with their phones on selfie sticks and they were live streaming some kind of,

I don't know, program, internet program with lots of viewers. And so our students went up and engaged them in spiritual conversation.

And these guys said the most vile, repulsive, blasphemous things intentionally to try and provoke our students.

One of them actually came up face to face with one of our students and was acting aggressively towards him like he wanted to fight. I was so proud of our students for responding with patience and kindness and self -control.

That's verse 19. That's verse 20. People refuse to come to the light. They hate the light for fear that their deeds will be revealed.

But you know what? On that same trip we also saw verse 21 revealed. One of our strategies on the trip was to give free van rides to students who might need them.

So we would pass out cards during the day with a phone number where they could call us for a free van ride and then college students who are down there to drink and have a good time could call us and we would drive them home.

Sometimes they had a little bit too much to drink and we would have students placed in the van and an opportunity to talk with these college kids.

So one of the first nights we were down there a group of guys called us. So they piled into the van and they happened to be from a university here in Michigan, Saginaw Valley State University, SBSU.

It's about six or seven guys. They were all down there to do what college students do and they really connected well with our students and had good conversations.

Now it was kind of an auspicious start because one of them kind of threw up in the van but we got over that. And regardless, we still had great conversations with this group.

Second night, they called us again. I don't want to get the timeline confused. About the third or fourth night they didn't call us and we were kind of like, oh, wonder what happened to those guys.

Well, one of them texted one of our students and said, you know what, we're not going to go out drinking tonight because it just doesn't feel right anymore.

We were celebrating. You can cheer too. The next day, our last day, it was raining so we couldn't really do anything.

We were just kind of hanging out at our Airbnb and one of the guys texted our group and he said, hey, it's raining, we're going to go play putt -putt golf at this indoor place.

Would any of you guys like to come? So my coworker, campus minister, and like four or five guys jumped in the vehicle and went and met these guys and spent the day playing putt -putt, eating barbecue and talking about Jesus.

One of these young men, a senior at SVSU, his name was John, heard the gospel, made a decision and gave his life to Christ.

And that very night, Thursday night, a week ago Thursday, that very night, Thursday night, a week ago

Thursday, we took him out on the beach and baptized him in the ocean. And what he said was really interesting.

He said, I came down to Daytona Beach seeking one thing and I found something

I totally didn't expect. I never thought anything like this would happen. But it was what my friend, my coworker

Trevor, said that I remembered. We were all talking as a group later and he said, I want you guys to know something.

I didn't do anything special to help John believe. This wasn't me.

I didn't say anything special. I didn't do anything special. I just shared the gospel. This guy had been prepared by the

Holy Spirit. He was ready to respond. God had been working in his heart to prepare him for this moment.

That's John 3, verse 21. Those who do what is right come to the light so that they can be seen that God is at work in their lives and that their works are from God.

Let's go ahead and pray together. Heavenly Father, we love because you first loved us.

And God, none of us would seek you if you had not sought us first and if you had not drawn us to yourself.

And so God, my earnest prayer is if there is anyone here that is just hearing you this morning speak through the scriptures, would you give them the courage to respond.

And I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would glorify your name, that you would give increase to your gospel.

I pray, Father, for the salvation of this world. And I pray that you would lay on each of our hearts the people, our co -workers, our neighbors, our relatives, whoever it might be, the people that are in our lives that you are drawing to yourself.

God, we want to see your kingdom come. We want to see your name glorified. God, would you be at work to accomplish what you've been doing from the beginning?

Would you draw people to yourself? Thank you. Thank you, Jesus. With all of our hearts, we thank you for coming into this world as the light of this world and for giving up your life on the cross for us.