John 3:16 • The Gift that Lasts and Lasts
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
We truly do say thanks be to God for such great love. And it's that message of love that's the focus of our Scripture this morning. We are going to be looking at John 3 16. Now since we began the messages in John, some of you have been waiting for this very Sunday. Are we ever going to get to John 3 16? And the answer is yes. Why is John 3 16 so important to us? We can tell amazing accounts of how this verse has been used in the life of the church, maybe in the life of our families. One of my favorite stories, actually I learned here about five years ago, Pastor Ben invited me to be here on a Mission Sunday. And when I was speaking, I went during the Sunday school hour to one of the Sunday school classes and heard Nancy Urquhart, one of your missionaries, talk about the work of Wycliffe translators, the ones who translate the Bible into various nations around the world. And here's a story that she told. In Zimbabwe, there was a Wycliffe translator who worked for a number of years translating the New Testament and going from his apartment to his office every day, he passed the same street side vendor whose business was rolling cigarettes.
Well day after day, the translator went past this man whose name was Gabber Rambi. And finally the work of the translation was done. So the translator knew he would be leaving the country and he wanted to give to Gabber Rambi a gift, the fruit of his efforts. He wanted to give him a New Testament. Here was the problem.
He knew how the paper pages would be used by the cigarette vendor.
They would be rolled into cigarettes. And so not wanting to be daunted by how he knew the pages would likely be used, the Wycliffe translator made an agreement with Gabber Rambi. I'm going to give you this Bible on this condition.
You'll read each page before you smoke it.
Gabber Rambi made the deal.
Now some years later, the Wycliffe translator was invited back to Zimbabwe to hear Christian leaders in Zimbabwe talk about the progress of the gospel in their nation and one of the chief speakers at the banquet was who? Gabber Rambi.
And here's what he said. He told people about the deal and the condition. And so he said, "I smoked through Matthew.
I smoked through Mark and Luke and I smoked through John until I got to John 3 16.
And then I sent my heart to heaven instead of the smoke."
We love Genesis, Genesis, we love John, well Genesis too, but we love John 3 16. And the reason we love it is because we recognize the gospel is there in such a nutshell, in such short form.
But that becomes important to us not because it's just in short form, but because it comes with such power.
If we wonder if it applies to us, if we wonder if we have wandered too far, that Jesus could still love us, John 3 16 answers. I'm going to ask that you stand and because it's just one verse and so many of us know it so well, I'm going to ask that you do the Scripture reading with me today as we stand together. Let's look on the screen and we'll repeat together.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, we praise You for the message of the gospel that You have sent Your Son to save us. We have art to rejoice this day as we recognize through the ministry of this church many people, perhaps tens of thousands even now are receiving the witness of the gospel.
Some of us need that witness in our hearts, in our families, among our friends even now.
And so as we say and now study these familiar words, we pray for the work of Your Holy Spirit
to open hearts, to enable all of us to understand and claim the Jesus who was given for us. This we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Please be seated.
In the theatrical version of the miracle worker, that account of Helen Keller born, you may remember without the ability to see or hear.
At one point shortly after the diagnosis, her mother is leaning over into the darkness of this child's cradle, a child who cannot see, who cannot vocalize anything but the crying of one who does not understand the world which cannot be heard or seen.
And the mother in almost desperation speaks in a way that only supernaturally could be heard by the child, but says much about the heart of the mother.
Looking into the cradle's darkness, the mother says, "Don't you know that we would do anything on earth to help you?
Don't you know that we love you that much?"
It's an earthly parent to a child in earthly pain.
But the message of John 3.16 is the message of a heavenly parent to earthly children, as God is saying to us in the darkness of fault and shame and weakness and disappointment.
Don't you know that I would move heaven and earth to help you?
Don't you know that I love you that much?
The reason the words are so dear to us in such short form is because at times we do not know, because we've been hurt so bad, or we have fallen so hard, or we've wandered so far away, that we wonder could it really be so that God's heart would be so big that He could still grasp and hold and receive us. And John 3.16 says with clarity, the answer to those questions is yes.
For what is shown to us here is a great heart. You know it just in the opening words, "For God so loved the world."
You know those words so many of you that you may not recognize that they are put in contrast to something that's already been said in this book.
Earlier you may remember in John chapter 1, we have been described who this Jesus is who is coming into the world's darkness.
In the first chapter in verse 9 we are told this, "The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world. He," that is the light, "He was in the world and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him." And if you read a little bit further it would say, "And His own did not even receive Him." Do you get the contrast? He was in the world and the world was made by Him, but the world did not know Him and rejected Him, but He so loved the world that He still came to be a gift of the Father to us. And the idea of the world itself being His love is saying how great is His heart, how expansive is this love. It's not just some people in the world. It's not just good people in the world. The world was made by Him. Mountains and rivers and oceans, the vast expanse of all that is around us, all the peoples, all the nations, the world was made by Him. And though the world did not receive Him, He so loved the world that He would come.
I know, and you recognize too, that the Bible is not saying that everyone in the world is going to receive this message. For there in John 3, you remember just two verses after the one that we read, John 3 16, is John 3 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 Son of God."
Here is the love vast, expansive being offered, but the fact that arms are outstretched does not mean that other arms will reach back.
And here the Apostle is saying to us, "Though the love is so expansive, it must be received." And we begin to fight back, but what if I don't deserve it?
What if there are things in my life that make it inappropriate that I would receive this love? No, that is the very point.
His heart is so big, so vast, so expansive that the very world that would reject Him, He is still loving. He is still offering the message of the good news of His life to them.
Some of us, when we were little, sang songs that we didn't know would have meaning to us later in life, I think of one for me. It's that wide, wide is the ocean, high as the heavens above, deep, deep as the deepest sea is my Savior's love. "I, though so unworthy, still am a child of His care, for His word teaches me that His love reaches me everywhere."
Well, how could that be if I have wandered, if I have failed, if I have fallen, if I have failed, if the very things I know to be true about God I have turned my back on? The reason that His love could still be there is because even when the world rejected Him, He so loved the world.
And His heart is that very big. And I say that today because I recognize we cannot gather in these numbers without having some of us wonder if I have wandered too far and my sin is too great or my shame too difficult to face that God's love could really reach me.
When Kathy and I were first married and before we had children, we still were accepting the job of being camp counselors during summer camp. And I can remember one particular summer camp. I had one of the boys' cabins. Kathy had one of the girls' cabins.
She had the harder job.
Because in her cabin was a young woman who was every camp counselor's nightmare.
Profane in language, crude in behavior, rebellious at every turn.
Every moment it seemed to the camp when she could get away, could go off into the woods, could do whatever she could. She was trying to, you know, grab a smoke.
Even at the Friday night campfire. Now those of you who are camp experts, you recognize what the campfire is about, right? It's the time in which camp counselors recognize this is the greatest camp in the world. And I'm the greatest counselor in the world. You know, it's very gratifying if you're a camp counselor on that night when people are talking about what God has done in their lives. And you can take all the credit and not really remember it's the Lord who's doing the wonderful work.
But even at the Friday night campfire, Kathy watched as this young woman, I'm not going to give you her real name.
I'm going to call her Sandra.
Watched as Sandra kind of edged her way to the edge of the firelight and then scooted off into the darkness to get another smoke.
Kathy followed her this time.
And in the darkness went to her and said, "Sandra, why have you made it so hard all week long?" And now even here at the campfire where we're rejoicing and what God is doing in people's eyes, even now you go off into the darkness.
And it was then that Sandra talked about the real darkness that was her life.
An absent mother being raised by a disinterested father who worked long hours and then to get relief and release on the weekend, invited his buddies for drinking and drugs.
And when that got old, he would give them Sandra too.
He was so hard and calloused and bitter as could possibly be a young woman in her middle teens.
What would you say?
For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Shame and guilt can be behind you. He can take it upon the cross. He can know the worst and still say, "I love you," because his heart is that big, wide. Wide is the ocean. High is the heavens above. Deep, deepest, the deepest sea is my Savior's love. I though so unworthy still am a child of his care. For his word teaches me that his love reaches me everywhere. And Sandra that night said the simple words, "Well, no one else loves me, so if he loves me that much, I want him in my heart."
It was the beginning, the beginning of a new life, of new hope. It's the thing that God is wanting you to hear me say as again, even this day, into the darkness that is some of your life. God is leaning over and he is speaking into the cradle of your existence and say, "Don't you know that I would move heaven to earth to help you? That is how much I love you."
And the great evidence of that is not just the claim of a great heart, but the evidence of a great gift.
What so loved the world that he gave?
His only son.
Now for a lot of us in this room, we want to say other words. They almost come out of our lips a different way, right? We want to say, "Only begotten son," because some of us were raised on the King James version of the Bible, not all. Some of you, I just rejoice that you're able to come and kind of learn anew the fresh words of Scripture. It's a wonderful gift that God gives you to come at different stages of life. But here's the thing. If you look at those words that we just read, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son," those words are very special in the way that they're being translated there because they connect to so many other verses when they are translated that way. This is not the first time in the Gospel of John that phrase about God's only son has been given. If you'll just turn to the first chapter and look at the 14th verse, John chapter 1 and verse 14.
Here's this message, John 1.14, "And the Word," remember that's the statement about who Jesus is, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth."
This one who was full of grace, the goodness of God given without condition, and truth, the message of salvation from heaven itself, this one who came with that message was God's only son. Now that language of only son is going to be picked up again, one other important place in the New Testament, and that's in the book of Hebrews. If you have your Bibles and you want to turn there, I won't ask you to because it's a little bit of a hard verse, but I want you to listen to the reference.
Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 17, Hebrews 11 and verse 17, these words, "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.
And he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac, shall your offspring be named." Now I want you to hear the words again.
Abraham was in the very act of offering up his only son, Isaac. Do you remember the Old Testament account? That's in Genesis chapter 22.
God has promised Abraham a son because Abraham is to be the father of many nations. Now to be the father of many nations, you better have a few children.
But at age 75, not having had any children, this promise comes. And you say, "Well, we better get going here."
But 25 years later, still no son, no children at all. It has to be disconcerting. I mean, you recognize in that ancient culture, having children was a sign not just of prosperity,
it was a sign of being obedient to God.
For Abraham to have no child at this point had to be embarrassing, had to be just totally debilitating in his standing. And finally, at almost age 100, the child comes.
Now that child we know by the language of the Hebrew is going to be somewhere between age 5 and 35. It's kind of a broad spread of what this child could be. What we know is he's been around long enough for Abraham to love him dearly.
And then what happens in Genesis 22 too? God says, "Now Abraham, take your son, your only son, whom you love and offer him up to me."
It's the same language.
It's Genesis 22 being reflected in John 3.16. You take your son, your only son, whom you love and offer him to me. And Abraham in obedience just does exactly that. But even as he has lifted the knife to strike, what does he see in the bushes?
A ram that God is providing for sacrifice. And Abraham names the place Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide. This God's great statement from the Old Testament now revealed in the New Testament, "Abraham, you offer your son, your only son, whom you love, but I will provide instead." What will I provide?
My son.
My only son whom I love. I will provide him.
It is the message of how great is the gift that God is giving that he would give this son of his own precious heart and say, "I love you so much. Wide, wide is the ocean, high is the heaven above. So great is my love for you that I would give my son, my only son for you." How would he give him?
It's important that you recognize that John 3.16 is the apostles' summary of the conversation that Jesus has been having with Nicodemus that concluded in verses 14 and 15 preceding.
You may remember there what this giving is about.
John 3.14, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up."
The images of that serpent in the Old Testament being lifted up so the people could look at it in order to live.
And now John says, "God will give his son to be lifted up to."
On a cross in suffering death, God will give his son the innocent to save others.
Maybe we hear that so often we forget what it would really mean. If it were your only child, if you loved him dearly, would you give him up for another?
And what would it mean if you did?
Kathy and I have dear friends. He is a Jew in background who has become a Christian.
And though he is a completed Jew, one who believes now in the Messiah in Christ, he still treasures his Jewish heritage. And so he talks about how his family ended up in the United States.
They were driven from Russia generations ago by one of the Tsars. It was one of those pogroms, one of those oppressive movements in which there was a purging of the ethnic Jews as the Russians tried to drive them out of Russia. And at one particular time, the village in which our friends' forefathers were living
had Russian troops to send upon it to find the Jews and to murder them.
The family escaped by running into the woods outside the village. And as the Tsars' troops began to disperse into the woods to try to find the family, there was a child, an infant in the family that began to whimper.
And the father to save the family put his child underwater so that the troops would not discover them.
The innocent died to save the family.
But if all you think about is the family being saved, you have not understood the depth of the gospel that is being explained here. For if the parallel were true, the child dies not merely to save the family, but to save those who are pursuing the family.
That's the gospel.
While we were yet his enemies, Christ died for us. Wide, wide as the ocean, high as the heavens above, deep, deep as the deepest sea is my Savior's love. It's what we sing and don't even recognize the words anymore as we sing, "And can it be that God for me would die, I who him to death pursued." It was my sin that nailed him to the cross. It was my fault, my shame, my wickedness, my wrong. All it was about me is what was nailed him there.
And the wonder of the gospel is that God's love was so great that he knowing me and you, our sin, would nail his son to the cross nonetheless sent his son.
It is the message of the wonder of the gospel as God again leans over into the darkness of our world and says, "Don't you know, I would send my son from heaven to earth for you.
I love you that much."
And what we want to know of course is what that really does ultimately for us.
Because if there is such a great heart with such a great gift, what's the impact for us in what John 3.16 is saying is you have a great hope that by faith you would be forever safe.
That by faith you understand, right?
God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him would have eternal life. Now, what are we supposed to believe?
Well again, that's the message that just preceded last week is as there John is telling us that Jesus says, "Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the will of the will of the will of the will, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." The serpent was emblematic of the poison coming out of the lips of the people of God as they were complaining against the very God who had delivered them.
And as Moses was now pleading to God, "How will we save them, Lord?" God says, "Put a serpent on the pole. You represent their sin in that serpent and lift it up. And if they will face their sin, they'll be saved.
If they'll really face it and believe I provided the means, they will be saved." Now Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus and he says these very same words, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." Which is saying this in order to believe in Jesus. What that actually means is you must believe that Jesus was sent for you and was sinned for you.
That God sent his own Son and his very purpose was to die upon that cross so that when you face the cross and all the images that we know are so awful even to consider, the thorns on the brow, the nails on the hands, the blood pooled beneath him, to actually believe that is the penalty for my sin on him. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for me.
If that's what I believe, it's kind of undoing a lot of what religion tends to teach for a biblical faith instead. I mean what we tend to think makes us right with God is belief in our religious background. I'm from a good family, I'm from a good church, I belong to a good denomination, whatever that is.
But background is not pointed to here. Well, maybe my faith is in some ritual. I was baptized, I became a member of a church.
Of course, our belief is not in a ritual that leads to eternal life. Well, maybe it's in some performance. After all, in the ancient religions, you know, you sometimes had to mutilate your own body or climb some mountain or go on some long pilgrimage, do some amazing feat.
Of course, that's not belief in him either, that's belief in your performance.
Sometimes we think it's belief in just having the right frame of mind.
I'll have enough faith. I mean really good, high quality faith.
But listen, if your faith is in your faith, that's just another form of faith in you.
What is this belief in him alone?
This belief that God sent him and that he is sin for me, it's total dependence on Christ's provision and not anything in me.
I don't know how to explain it exactly because it's so counter what we think faith is about, being good enough or having sufficient faith or all these religious rituals that we think one has to go through. And what the Bible is saying is, no, it's dependence on another. It's not so much doing as depending.
I think of it in these terms. Some years ago, Kathy and I had the opportunity to take a hike up of one of Colorado's high mountains. It wasn't a 14,000. It was something like 13,850. Almost a 14,000 foot mountain.
And we went with some friends of ours and their daughter named Abby Doriani at the time. Abby was an elite athlete.
She was an elite athlete playing ultimate Frisbee on the national championship team. I mean this gal could run forever and like lightning. And we had the misfortune of trying to go up a mountain with her.
I mean this little antelope is just, you know, she's going, "And we're just trying to make it."
But at some point as she got toward the top of the climb, she stepped wrong off a rock,
badly sprained her ankle. And despite all of her ability, all of her strength, could make it no further and certainly could not make it down.
Her dad was with us, huffing and puffing to keep up with her. And finally as we got up to her and we recognized we were going to have to carry her down, her dad offered.
Now, listen, all of us offered, but she didn't want the sweaty backs of any of the other men. She only wanted her dad.
Now Abby could have just said, "You know, dad, I believe you can carry me down.
I mean I think you can do it." But ultimately that would not get her down.
Ultimately what she had to do is submit herself to letting her dad pick her up and get on his back and let him carry her, her dependence totally on him. Not her energy, not her effort, not her background, not all the great wind and strength that she had, she had to depend upon another.
And when she did, his destination became hers.
That's what happens here too. If you believe in him, you will not perish, but have eternal life.
Jesus died on the cross, but then what happened?
He rose again and is even now at the right hand of the Father of glory. And that same Jesus is saying to you and to me, "If you will depend upon me," not your ability, not your strength, not your ritual, "if it's total dependence upon me, you believe I was sent for you and I was sinned for you," taking the penalty that you deserve upon a cross. When you believe that, then my destination is your destination and that is eternity. And that means totally loved by God. That means not only totally loved, but the corruptions of our sin with we or with God put behind us. No more sin, no more suffering, no more disease, no more illness, tears gone, pain gone, reunited with loved ones. It is the promise of heaven itself as when God says when the husk of this body, this mortal body dies, nonetheless our souls are made right with God and we are united with him forever.
You shall not perish. I'm not saying the body doesn't go in the grave, but the spirit that God gives us unites with him and at the resurrection we are made one with him whole and pure and right forever. And that is the promise to those who are suffering from sin and from disease and hurt and grief and shame. God is saying, "I will make this right." He is looking over into the darkness of our world, whether it's the darkness of our guilt, the darkness of our shame, the darkness of our grief. He says, "Don't you know that I would move heaven and earth to help you? That is how much I love you and that's exactly what he did. He helped us by giving his own son to make us right with himself as we believe in him.
He was sent for me. He became sent for me so that I might be with him forever."
What difference does it make? You have to think of your own life circumstance to know.
I think of friends and ours. A few years ago, it was right after Christmas and Margie, our friend, put out at the end of her driveway all the Christmas trash.
And Sam the recycling man came, saw the big load, went and knocked on the door and said,
"Miss Margie, too much."
She went to the end of the drive with him.
"Oh, Sam, please, would you please take it?"
Finally he said, "Okay, Miss Margie, I'll take it."
"God bless you, Sam," she said.
He cocked his head. He said, "Miss Margie, are you a Christian?"
She said, "Yes."
He said, "Isn't it great to be a Christian?
It doesn't matter what you drive, it doesn't matter what you've done, it doesn't matter what your background is, you are with Jesus and you're going to be with Jesus forever."
She said, "That really is great." She said, "You know, I believe that.
I wish my husband did because he's dying of cancer."
Sam the recycling man, there at the end of the driveway, said, "Well, then Miss Margie, we're going to have to pray for him."
He put one hand on her shoulder and he lifted up another hand to heaven and he began to pray for Miss Margie's husband, even as the neighbors drove by.
Margie would look up every now and then wonder what they were thinking.
Then she wondered what Doug was thinking when he came out of the house to go to the end of the driveway to collect the paper.
Sam spoke to Doug, "Mr. Doug, I don't know where your heart is, but I hope you will receive Jesus Christ as your Savior because he will make you right with God forever and you will have eternal life no matter what happens on this earth."
Nothing more was said in that meeting.
A few weeks later, Doug died and went to heaven because he had believed in Jesus and named him as his Savior.
A lifetime without Jesus, a lifetime lived for self, but even in his dying recognized.
Wide, wide is the ocean, high is the heavens above, deep, deep is the deepest sea, is my Savior's love. I, though so unworthy, still am a child of his care, for his word teaches me that his love reaches me everywhere.
It's God's great offer to you even this day. Do you recognize the things that would separate you from God? Do you recognize the things that would say, "Listen, there's no reason he should care for me, that he should give his son for me, but even in saying so, be willing to say, I believe he was sent for me and he was sent for me so that I could be right with God now and forever." If that is what you believe, then God says, "You are mine."
And when that happens, you have eternal life in Jesus Christ now and forever. Can you believe this? Heaven starts now.
Really, if there's no end, if you know that you're secure and your sins are gone, heaven starts now.
There may still be a few hurdles here, some difficult things to go through, but if you're secure in him forever safe, you are his and he is yours forever.
If some of you want to know more what that means for you, for your family, we are going to pray again. We said we'd do that last week. We're going to be a New Testament church. We're going to gather right here. We're going to pray for family and friends and our own hearts.
And we are going to pray, saying, "God, I'm not depending on my background or my performance or any ritual of the past.
I believe Jesus was sent for me and he was made sent for me and in your great heart because I believe that you make me yours forever."
Let's pray together. We're going to sing and let people come if they want to pray.
Let's pray. "Father, I ask that you by your spirit be working right now, that we would recognize that Jesus did not just die for the good people. He died for those who were pursuing him to death like everyone here who would acknowledge their sin in need of a Savior. We are not better than one another. We are all in need of the grace of Jesus Christ, his gift to us."
Help us now as we stand to sing to kneel in our hearts and ask Jesus to work there or in the hearts of those that we love.
This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.