30.1 John 4:7-8 "Great Love"

1st John chapter 4 starting in verse 7 here now the inspired word of God beloved let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who is born of God and knows

God the one who does not love does not know God for God is love by this the love of God was manifested in us that he has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him and this is love not that we loved

God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins let's pray father once again as we prepared to look into your word we ask you prepare our hearts that father that you would cleanse our hearts churn up the hard ground that we would be able to see hear and understand what you have to say to us and that by hearing and understanding that we would be conformed to the image of our great and Savior Jesus Christ it's in his name we pray amen please be seated during the 1970s and the 80s if you watched any of the major sporting events in that era there's a good possibility you would see a man in a wearing a rainbow wig holding a sign that said

John 316 his first major appearance was at the

NBA Finals in 1977 but then he compared come continued for a number of years showing up behind the goalposts at NFL games behind home base during the baseball all -star game he actually made appearances at the

Indy 500 and during a golf match at none other than Augusta National he was quite unique and was very adept at getting his sign he knew the camera angles and would always position himself that so that he would be on camera but he isn't the only one that has used

John 316 in somewhat unusual ways the In -N -Out

Burger chain in California at least used to print on the bottom of their cups John 316 the forever 21 chain printed it on their shopping bags and of course who can forget the

Heisman Trophy winner and controversial person Tim Tebow who put it on his face with eye black

John 316 without question John 316 is one of the most recognized verses in all of scripture it's one of the first verses that Sunday school students are asked to memorize it could very well be

I don't have anything to back this up but it could very well be that it is the most preached verse in all of scripture it's been called the gospel in a nutshell by some and there's good reason why it's so popular for it contains some of the most basic truths about our salvation in one short concise verse but because of these same facts it's quite often taken out of context and oversimplified and sometimes even downright misinterpreted and as with the rest of scripture it must be preached in the context of the whole passage now you may be asking we're studying first John 4 aren't we how did we get to John 316 well the answer is quite simple we're we're in the middle of the epistle of first John and we've come to chapter 4 and we've read these two verses in particular beloved let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows

God the one who does not love and does not know God for God is love and then in verse 9 the love of God was manifested that God has sent his only begotten

Son into the world that the that the word we might be saved through him so you can see the relationship of the two passages of scripture these two verses seven and eight of first John 4 are just packed with rich and important truths and we've kind of pitched our tents metaphorically speaking and camped out on these two verses for a number of weeks it's the thing it's four or five weeks now we spend two weeks examining the encounter of Jesus with Nicodemus and then we looked at the relationship of you must be born again for entrance in fact even to understand the kingdom of God and then last week we examined what biblical love is its importance and its description today we're going to examine just how great this love of God is and this is a necessity because we are commanded by scripture and in these verses in particular to emulate the love of God that's where John 3 16 comes in because right in the middle of the encounter with Jesus and Nicodemus which is an important encounter in scripture we find

John 3 16 now what has happened so far in this encounter just a quick recap remember

Nicodemus has shown his utter inability to grasp the concept of the new birth and Jesus has rebuked him he said are you the teacher of Israel and you don't understand these things and Jesus then proceeds to impress upon Nicodemus the authority that he has as the

Messiah he says he's the only one who has come down from heaven and he's testifying about things that he has firsthand knowledge to and then he gives him another analogy from the

Old Testament he talks about the bronze serpent how the bronze serpent was lifted up and in crystal clarity he explains to Nicodemus that just as God was the one who saved the

Israelites from those poisonous snakes but only if they exercise faith by looking upon the bronze serpent in that same manner he says so much

Christ be lifted up to become the man and become the salvation of mankind and that's the context we find

John 3 16 in and the context of the entire dialogue is simply this

God is sovereign over salvation only he can save through the new birth and the power of the

Holy Spirit because of the love of the Father and the obedience of the Son this passage clearly shows the

Trinitarian work of God in saving mankind and these verses are an excellent summary of this great work of love but to begin we want to look at this very carefully for John 3 16 begins with one little word for and it's an important word because it shows the connection between all that was said beforehand and what is coming next

Jesus has been explaining to Nicodemus how one is saved it is by the new birth and that by the power of the

Holy Spirit only and he asserted don't try to figure it out because the

Spirit is like the wind he doesn't tell you how he's going to do it doesn't tell you why he's going to do it and that's an important one he doesn't tell you why he saved someone but you can know his motivation for saving anyone for God so loved the world love was the motivation the reason that anyone is saved is because of the love of God and for no other reason it's not it's not a love that mankind that that we can't even understand this side of heaven look at the text again look at John 3 16 again for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten

Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life the wording is interesting for God so loved not merely loved but so loved that's a good translation but sometimes it can be a misleading what it means is in this manner or exactly like this it anticipates what is to follow and that is the giving of that which is most precious precious to God is only begotten

Son and so this love is the greatest love and it's not it's not only here that we see this concept expressed the

Apostle Paul describes the love in this way in Ephesians 2 for but being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us

I like that title great love well you would expect nothing less would you because he is a great

God if we understand the character of God we should express that his love expect and express that his love would be the greatest love of all with all deference to Whitney Houston I'm sorry but that is not the greatest love of all it's not even close to love inside of me brothers and sisters you don't want to look inside of me and I don't mean physically the greatest love of all is not to love yourself

I want to remind you once again just how important theology is theology is merely the study of God you start asking questions about God you're studying theology just a question are you doing a good study and the more we study

God the more we come to understand his greatness he is the most glorious majestic being that there is he is the first cause of all things and everything he does is the best because he is perfect in all that he does you know we studied

Daniel about a year ago or so and I know I constantly refer back to Nebuchadnezzar he's one of my favorite people in scripture and we won't get into that why but no one said it better than Nebuchadnezzar you remember the story

Nebuchadnezzar was bragging about all that he had accomplished he looked at all the glorious of the kingdom of Babylon which was magnificent and what did he say look what

I have done and of course God caused him to lose his mind just to show him he became from the king of kings as he's called in scripture he became like a beast of the field but then

God had mercy on him and I love this portion in Daniel chapter 4

Daniel writes but at the end of the period I Nebuchadnezzar raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me and I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever for his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to generation all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing but he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth and no one can ward off his hand or say to him what have you done at that time my reason returned to me and my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out so I was reestablished in my sovereignty and surpassing greatness was added to me now oh and I love verse 37 now

I Nebuchadnezzar praise exalt and honor the king of heaven for all his works are true his ways are just and he is able to humble those who walk in pride throughout all of Scripture we find that God is the greatest in every respect so it only follows that his love would be the greatest love of all let's look at some examples of just how great the love of God is first it's an infinite love and an eternal love and they're not the same thing being infinite means without measure

Paul prays for the Ephesian church in his letter to the to the church in Ephesus in chapter 3 and the prayer is interesting because it's almost self -contradictory almost he prays that they may be able to comprehend with all the

Saints what is the breadth length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ he's praying that they would be able to know the love of Christ which then he says which surpasses knowledge then you may be filled up with all the fullness of God we are to strive to know the love of God but it's beyond our ability

Paul is praying that you would know more and more about God's love every day in your

Christian walk that you would seek to understand his love as much as your finite mind can comprehend infinite but in the end our minds are too small for us to fully understand there's an old hymn written around the turn of the last century not the 21st century and the hymn writer sums up these thoughts of the love of God I'm just going to quote a few of the parts of the verses the love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell it goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell and then he continues in his second verse could we would think the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made where every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry nor could the scroll contain the whole though it stretched from sky to sky and then he breaks in to refrain

Oh the love of God how rich and pure how measureless and strong it shall forevermore endure the saints and angels so so God's love is infinite but his love is also eternal remember

God is love is what the scripture tells us love is not just a part of him he defines what love is and his love is from all eternity a great professor of theology

Louis Burkhoff says this since God is absolutely good in himself his love cannot find complete satisfaction in any object that falls short of absolute perfection now keep those thoughts in mind because in them you will see the absolute necessity for the atoning work of Jesus Christ and that's what

John is relating to us in this verse because God's eternal love for his people because of his eternal love for his people it necessitated the sacrifice of Jesus Christ you know sometimes we sing choruses at the beginning of our service and sometimes sitting around the fellowship table but there's a little chorus that gives expresses this thought how deep the father's love for us how vast beyond all measure that he should give his only son to make a wretch a treasure his love is infinite his love is eternal second it's an unchangeable love one of the great doctrines of scripture is the immutable immutability of God and immutability means unchanging

God does not change and this is clearly taught in all the scripture beginning when

God reveals himself to Moses remember when he's sending Moses on the mission and he's explaining who he is and in Exodus 314

God said to Moses I am who I am and he says thus you shall say to the sons of Israel I am has sent me to you

God is who he is and there is no changing no becoming he is who he is we see

James expressed that same thought in James 117 every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation no shifting shadow and in fact to show just how important this doctrine is

God says to Malachi in Malachi 3 6 for I the

Lord do not change therefore O sons of Jacob are not can you therefore you

O sons of Jacob are not consumed therefore the love of God is unchanging just like every one of his attributes and remember because God does not consist in parts has no body parts he is one

God and since he is love that means his love is unchangeable and as he says in Malachi that's a good thing because if I could change you would be consumed think about that it's the unchangeable character of God that prevents even his people from being consumed let me quote professor burkhoff once again he says he does not even withdraw his love completely from the sinner in his present sinful state though the latter sin is an abomination to him since he recognizes even in the center his image bearer at the same time he loves believers with a special love since he contemplates them as his spiritual children in Christ and the unchangeable nature of his love is seen in the election of his people in Ephesians 1 starting in verse 4 the

Apostle Paul says to the church just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him in love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved so his love is great it's infinite it's immutable but third it's giving now this really goes without saying it should for at the heart of biblical love in general is that it is a giving love in fact that's an essential attribute of love and that's clearly seen in the present past passage of John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son the love of God for his people mandated that he do something for them those whom he loved from before the foundation of the world could not be allowed to to remain in their sin and so he gave the greatest gift that could ever be given his only begotten son and that's the pattern for us notice the way the text says it for God so loved the world that he gave

Paul puts it a slightly different way in Romans 580 says but God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners

Christ died for us notice that giving is a demonstration of true love love is not static or sedentary and God demonstrated his love in that while we were yet sinners

Christ died for our sins he gave us the greatest gift which met our greatest need and that is the pattern for us we are called to love like God the two great commandments love the

Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength love your neighbor as yourself and then in the

Sermon on the Mount we're told oh by the way love your enemy if you're a

Christian you are called to love just like that husbands and wives question question for you are you loving each other in that way parents and children the love goes both ways are you loving like that church members are you loving other church members in the same manner that Christ loves you

Christian love is to be manifested in real tangible ways in forgiveness and patience and practical ways such as helping and giving of your time and effort

God's love for his creation demanded that he do something and that was to give the greatest gift which met man's greatest need look again at the text for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son oh by the way

I don't mind quoting this over and over again I hope you don't mind hearing it that he gave his only begotten son it only follows that the greatest love of all would bestow the greatest gift of all and that's exactly what the text tells us the gift of course is the only begotten son now we've spoken of this before but there's much confusion even in the church as to what that phrase means the problem comes because we have a tendency of to think of begotten in terms of physical generation especially in biblical terms when we see what we affectionately referred to as those begat passages you know the ones you always skip over how many times you skip over the begat passages don't do that there's a lot of rich theology

I know a man who was saved by reading the begat passages all scripture is profitable but back to the text this phrase has led some people to assert that Jesus was at some point came into existence after the creation he was begotten but of course that flies in the face of the clear theology of the

Bible as a whole Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity he's eternally has no beginning he has no end he is fully

God in every respect he was not begotten in incarnation but is eternally begot the

Greek term that is used for begotten is monogenous which literally means unique one -of -a -kind and while we become sons of God as God through adoption through the work of Christ on the cross

Jesus is unique one -of -a -kind the one and the only one and here is an extremely important point the love of God that we have already spoken of this morning is given unto us only because the love of God has the love of God that he has for his only begotten son he loves us in Jesus Christ remember the context of this verse it is the gift of Jesus Christ entering humanity and paying the price for sin that allows men to enter into the family of God that's what

Jesus told Nicodemus unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God it is the regenerating work of the

Holy Spirit that allows men to receive the gift of the only begotten

Son and apart from this work men will never accept even the teaching of the substitutionary atonement that's exactly what the problem was with Nicodemus remember in verse 11

Jesus says truly I say to you we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen and yet you do not accept our testimony the greatness of the gift of the

Son can be seen in many ways so we're going to examine just just a few of them this morning first it meant the taking of upon himself humanity just sit back in a chair for a minute think about this the eternal

Son of God very God condescended to take upon himself the limitations of human flesh he became a true man fully man yet still being fully

God can you even imagine what that means the theologians call that the beginning of his humiliation the only thing that I can think of that comes close to explaining a little bit and it's so poor

I hesitate to mention it if you were born into a family we had all the riches you could have all the power you everything was at your whim and then you became homeless it's not even close so he took upon himself human flesh he became one of us second he came into his own in his own received him not this one really has to hurt we see in chapter 1 of John's gospel he came to save his people and they rejected him the very people that needed him the most the ones to whom he entered into covenant with the nation that he had chosen from all other nations and when they had gotten themselves into the biggest mess they could have found themselves in he comes to them and offers salvation and they refuse and even when a

Gentile ruler tries to reason with them and say I find no fault in him they rejected him and cried out crucify him crucify him and what did

Pilate say his hand his blood is not on my hands even he recognized the folly of it and what did they say his own people may his blood be upon us and on our children and then right to the very end of his ministry they plotted against him and then plotted against his disciples and they rejected the greatest gift of all third he was the greatest gift because he took the sins of his people upon himself he who knew no sin became sin he paid for the price of sin not for his own for the he never sinned and he suffered the death of a common criminal on the cross and he took the wrath of God in place of his people can there be any question but that the gift of Jesus Christ given by the father is the greatest gift ever given now we could spend many more hours just discussing why

Jesus is the greatest gift but the text gives just one more reason at this point and that is simply this it's the greatest gift because it brought about the greatest result what is the result eternal life but notice that this result the gift of the

Sun eternal life is conditional it's based upon faith whoever believes are the one to whom the gift is efficacious this is an important point so before we look at the greatest greatness of the result we must examine who are these whoever believes and to do that we must go back to the world that God loves what does it mean that God so loved the world well in one sense even as we read from Professor Burkoff it can be said that God loves the whole of creation because all humanity retains the image of God even though it's tarnished and shattered

Jesus has been telling Nicodemus that entrance into his kingdom receiving eternal life is not based upon being an ethnic

Jew Nicodemus was an ethnic Jew and he tells him you must be born again and back in chapter 1

John has told us but as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in his name who are these people well we're not left in the dark who are the people who believe

John 1 13 those who were born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man but of God those who are born again those who have been chosen by God and these people are now to be chosen not just from the

Jewish nation but from the whole world and on that basis whoever believes him shall not perish but have eternal life and we come to we see this come to fruition in the ministry of the

Apostle Paul and this makes it so compellingly clear in Acts 13 verse 47

Paul is speaking to the Jews and he says for the Lord has commanded us

I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth notice what he's saying

Paul was given specifically to the Gentiles most of us are

Gentiles he says that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth well we kind of live in the end of the earth we are on an island and when the

Gentiles heard this they began bickering among themselves and oh no that's not what it says when the

Gentiles heard this they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the

Lord and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed and so the whosoever is all those in the world upon whom

God has set his love and gave them to Jesus Christ and that's the context for the world and whoever believes in John 316 so Jesus Christ has the greatest gift because those whom he saves shall not perish you know people do not like to speak about hell they don't like to speak about eternal damnation but you cannot speak about salvation without coming to grips with these doctrines the fact is whether you like to think about it or you put it out of your mind the reality is that apart from Christ everyone perishes and let me clear something up here when when

Jesus has perished he doesn't mean that you cease to exist that's a fanciful doctrine that has become in vogue as of late but has no basis in Scripture to perish in a biblical sense is to remove to be removed from the mercy and the grace of God and be subject to the wrath of God for all eternity

Jesus Christ described it as the place where the fire is not quenched and the worm doesn't die it's an eternity removed from anything good and it's only through the gift of Jesus Christ that anyone is delivered from that fate eternal life this is truly an amazing thought people from every tribe every tongue every nation will be saved and have eternal life and and by the way eternal life is not merely life without end and that's part of it to be sure but only a part of it we are told that all true believers will have no part in the second death that's eternal damnation but it's much more than that we will be brought into the eternal state as sons and daughters of the

Most High God with all the blessings associated with such a position even the angels will be subjected to us all the anguish all the heartache of sin gone all the disease and illness will be banished and erased boy will our prayer list be reduced the love of God the love of the people of God which can be difficult on earth

I thought I might even get an amen on that it's the reality isn't it but all of the people of God will have perfect love for one another there will be no sin nothing to get in the way of our worship of Almighty God imagine perfect worship there are times

I wish I could sing but I struggled so I can't keep it low so you don't hear me whenever I go and preach someplace

I always make a deal with the sound man so that he cuts my mic when we sing but imagine perfect worship imagine the heavenly choirs it's unimaginable but one of the greatest blessings will be that we will have an eternity to communicate with our great and awesome

God perfect communication everything about God is infinite eternal there will be no boredom in heaven we will constantly be amazed as we get to know him more and more why for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life you know that simple verse says so much it's a shame that the man in the rainbow wig turned out to be somewhat less than he appeared to be he wound up being arrested on rather bizarre charges ended his career he's no longer the 36

John 316 man but because of people like that John 316 has often become a catchphrase for those who are wacky it's also a shame that the most memorized of all

Bible verses used to promote poor theology has now been defamed but none of those are reasons to for us to abandon the verse because it contains some of the most profound biblical truths in all of Scripture and in a simple and in a straightforward manner which supports our text in John chapter 4 so if you're here today and you are a believer this verse is not only great comfort but a source of great encouragement it reminds us that the special of God has for his children is nothing short of amazing it is the greatest love of all it is the reason we are saved from perishing and receive the gift of eternal life the love of God is eternal infinite the greatest love of all and as we have seen in past studies the love he has for his for us is the same love that he has for his only begotten son now there's a thought for you how much does

God love Jesus Christ he loves you in that same love the love of God for us is eternal infinite the greatest love of all and this should motivate us to strive to love just as he has loved think of how patient he is with us how forgiving he is with us

Jesus Christ is the sympathetic Savior who understands our weaknesses because he was tempted in every way just as we are yet without sin oh what manner of love the

Father has given unto us that we should be called the sons of God if you're here this morning and you're not a believer you have heard the gospel very clearly very simply