The Golden Verse (John 3:16)

Well, greetings one and all. A delight to be up here and bringing the word of the Lord today. I'll start with a view. and a question regarding the most popular verse that you can think of that's in the Bible, the most popular verse in the scriptures. You'll find it printed on many products that are created out in the world.

For example, food, fast food packages. You'll find it on there. You'll find it on drink containers as well. T-shirts, hats. You'll find it on bumper stickers.

You'll find it on tracks. Fridge magnets, for example, as well. And stationary. This word is very, very popular universally. You can probably know what it is already.

I can see a few nods. Very good. Yep, it's John 3.16. It's our focus verse for today.

John 3.16. 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 or eternal life. So our plan today is to investigate this text and see if we can analyse it and that we grow in deeper love with the Lord Jesus. That would be the goal, that he be glorified through our lives, in our hearts and with our relationships, one with the other and indeed out into the world.

May we indeed, Lord, be transformed by the word, and thy glorious spirit in our hearts, and behold the day of his power. Let's open our Bibles, shall we, to John, John's Gospel, chapter 3. and beginning verse 1 and we'll read through to verse 21 for context. There was a man of the Pharisee named Nicodemus. A ruler of the Jews, this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes to. And so is everyone who is born of the spirit.' Nicodemus answered and said to him, how can these things be? And Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel, and you do not know these things?

Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify to what we have seen, and you do not believe our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation. that the light has come into the world.

And men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come into the light lest his deeds should be exposed. 21. But he who does the truth comes to the light. that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God.

End of our reading. Let's pray, shall we? Loving Father, we thank you indeed for this time that you have bestowed upon us, that we should gather around your word. Father, I just pray, Lord, for help for this weak vessel that you would strengthen. Not my strength indeed, Lord, but yours.

the word of God, your word shall be shared amongst us, Lord, that we should look to you, the living God, and draw from you, Lord, life, for that's where we find life, only in you, Lord. Praise be to you. Open this word, we pray, up to us. In Jesus' precious name, amen. Okay, let's dive in as the old saying goes.

First is the, in this, we're just going to break the phrase down and begin with the word for, because that's our number one word to begin with. For, it's the introduction. So Paul, sorry, John introduces this with a preposition. For it sets the context and the reason for God's love is the greatest manifestation of mercy and grace towards unlovely humanity. God has revealed his radical love to the world, showing with effectual proof to everyone.

And that is the whoever. from this sea of lost souls, all of them who look to God's provided ransom sacrifice, Christ lifted up on the cross, as we just read in John 3.14, this cross, they shall gain eternal life. That's how it is gained, through Christ being sacrificed at the cross. We just have reference back just a little bit earlier on, we read that, and Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up.

So we have reference to the shadow or the type, this brass snake lifted up that the Lord Jesus is referring to. So God has this planned means of salvation. to give his most precious and valuable gift for the lost, for the unworthy ones, for the world. Jesus said, we're reading John 6, 40. If you wanna just flick over to there, John 6, 40.

That's John 6, verse 40. And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the sun and believes in him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day. So the question remains, my friend, before we move out of this first word, have you looked to the sun and seen indeed what he has done? Don't procrastinate if you haven't done this already.

Take it. If you need and want and desire to have more than what you have at the moment in terms of life, look to the sun. He will give it to you and for eternity. The next word we're looking at is the word God, for God. so loved the world.

This first phrase of verse 16 commands our attention. And it's important because it teaches us straight away about the nature and the response of God towards the lost. This is how he responded. Firstly, we must ask which God is John talking about? Now, we don't have to go far out of these walls here to know that we are talking about the Living God, the God who lives, the Yahweh, the One who created all things.

This God is the One that John is talking about, the Great I Am. But for the multitude out there who don't believe, their idea of God is diverse and radical. You've probably heard that the old man that lives in the sky with the big white beard, that's their concept or idea of God. And there are a myriad of other ideas as well. In Genesis 1.

1 we read, and you know it, in the beginning, God. That's how it starts off. And that's the God we're talking about, the one who created all things that exist. And this is called in Latin, creatio ex nihilo. I admit my English is not the best, but Latin is even worse.

No, God didn't send his legion of armies down to Bunnings to pick up materials and hardware to do the job. No. He spoke. He said the word. Let there be light, and there was light.

In Genesis 3, we read that. Doesn't the creation simply amaze you? The wonder, the beauty of it, the diversity of life. Amazing. The laws that govern all things.

the living things like seeds and DNA. Take a seed for example. You ever like looked at this seed thinking in there, in that little thing is packed all the life to create this tree or to grow this tree that's locked in here. And not just the tree but the fruit that comes with it. I used to tell my students at school when we were doing drawing and stuff like that to go down to the fruit shop and have a look at the vast shelves of fruit and vegetable all lined up, ready to buy.

You walk through there and the smell, the aroma from the fruit is wonderful. It entices you. And then to think that inside of each of these pieces of fruit is locked in their flavour. the beauty and the wonder of the fruit in smelling and tasting it, in eating it, to give us energy. And more than that, God's locked in there the nutrients that we need.

All those good things packed in there for our health. So he's not just thinking, oh, we want, God wants you to enjoy this, but also to get the benefit of the nourishment from it. This is the God we're talking about. Just incredible. We could easily spend all day here on this topic, but we must move on.

And so you could say that God has his fingerprints all over the creation. Psalm 19 points us to this as well. God made Adam and Eve, creating them in his own image. Imago Dei, another Latin word, Imago Dei, in his image. Yep, there's plenty of sermons packed into just that phrase.

But we must move on. And here we come to the point where God had said all is very good. perfect, his handiwork, not handiwork, his workmanship would be better. 131, 131 we find in Genesis, but you know, evil, evil was lurking in the shadows while all this was going on. the serpent among the beasts who was more cunning than any of the other creatures.

Genesis 3. He's watching and waiting in the shadows to steal and to kill and destroy all this good that God had created. The man and the woman were his prime targets for deception. The woman fell for the cunning lies of the evil one, who deceived the eyes of her heart to disobey God. Genesis 3.

Adam also listened to his Eve, wife, and also took the forbidden fruit and ate. Their conscience became awakened. And they immediately felt fear, shame, and they hid from God. Eve blamed the snake in the garden, blaming God. Adam blamed Eve indirectly, and I should say, and God indirectly.

And Eve blamed the serpent, finger pointing, to deflect their guilt, as children and adults do as well today. It's within us to try and get out of things that we have done wrong. The Lord God pronounced the judgment of death on the man and his wife, and he cursed the earth and banished them from Eden. Genesis 3. In time, the generations of mankind felt an innate need to worship God, but their corruption and their wickedness was so great that every intent of their thoughts, of the heart, was only evil continually.

Genesis 6. They made idols to worship, false gods devised by their own sinful imaginations. They fashioned these out of wood and stone and metal, crafted with their own hands. Romans 1. We're familiar with the narrative of Exodus, where Moses, God's representative, demanded of Pharaoh that he let God's people go.

However, Pharaoh was hard of heart and would not comply. The narrative contains 10 plagues that are interpreted as divine judgments against the Egyptian pantheon, directly attacking the power and the authority of specific Egyptian gods. Each plague demonstrated that God of Israel was far superior to the gods imagined and made and worshipped by the Egyptians. It is the same outcome for all of the false gods of the nations throughout the scriptures. We've just been following these through just recently.

God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, and no principality, no power can thwart his will and his purposes. We need to move on, but we will leave this statement from Keech's Catechism. He says, quote, in the light of nature in man, and the works of God plainly declare that there is a God, but his word and spirit only do effectually reveal him unto us for salvation. Can you see by the witness of the creation that there is a God who created all things? Do you believe that?

Don't rely on the wisdom of men to find out the meaning of life. You will never be satisfied. They haven't got the answers. But only through the word and spirit of God will you find true purpose and meaning. So is our next word.

And so is not a needle pulling thread, no. For God so loved the world. So in English, this word is used as what's called an intensifier. It means in this way. That is how God's love is manifested.

In this way, God loved the world by giving his son. This is a demonstration. We will further explore this point a bit later on. The next word is loved. God is love.

This is the pivotal phrase for understanding who God is, why he does what he does, and how he does it. God is love. Love is not simply an attribute of God, but it's in fact his essential nature. 1 John 4. The God The Lord God loves because he is the essence of love.

The phrase, God so loved, now has our attention because it tells us how God responded to his creation, past, present and future. The Lord God loves because he is the essence of love. The phrase, God so loved, now is able to help us comprehend the depth of God's motivation in all that he does, because it's his divine essence. But now it's action time. God the Father is now ready to reveal his all-glorious secret weapon to the world.

to absolutely show how radical and how extreme and unfathomable is the depth of his love. It's now being revealed to the world, all that we see, but it's also revealed to the unseen world as well. His plan is to disarm the rulers and the authorities in dark places. He is going to make a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2.

The whole redemption story discloses how God moves to redeem man from the bondage and domination of hatred and sin and death, and to bring them into the kingdom of his love. What a God. For God so loved. Love is God's action to our sinful rebellion against him. Paul says that we are dead in trespasses and sins.

Ephesians 2. Totally lost, spiritually separated from God, with no hope of being saved from God's rightful judgement. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, sent Christ to save us. Ephesians five. Let's read together actually, shall we?

Ephesians chapter one. Turn to Ephesians one, thanks. And we'll read from three to 10. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure.

which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather into one all things, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him." Staggering text. The love of God in action. Here, it's being teased out for us, told to us, The Apostle Paul points out that God freely gives all that we need. It's found in Christ.

Even our faith is a gift so that no man may boast Ephesians 2. Can you see, brethren, the love of God manifested toward us? His love with every spiritual blessing, choosing us in eternity, redeeming us wholly, blameless, predestined to adoption, redeemed, forgiveness of our sins, how great is the love of God. 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. We also note this great truth echoed in Titus, when the kindness and the love of God, our saviour, towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.

There's a well-known group called The Beatles. You've probably heard of them. Some of you, maybe. Yeah, quite a few. And they tell us in the title of their song that all you need is love.

Love, love, love. But the question is, what love are they talking about? In the English language, we have the concepts of love. I love pizza. I love my dear wife, I love my children, I love music.

Yeah, there are these emotive qualities that are coming up from within us to express these emotions. But what is this love that God is talking about here? God's love, the highest form of love. It is described as selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional. It does not depend on the recipient's worthiness.

It's proactive choice to act for the well-being of another without the exception of getting anything in return. It gives of itself to death. Here is the gospel. Indeed, Jesus is the manifestation of God's love, sacrificial love, unconditional love. In this, the love of God is manifested toward us.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans chapter five. So how do we apply this great love, brother and sister? Are you seeking to love and to serve him with this devotion and love with your whole heart? Or is it your attention to the stuff of the world?

Is that where your affection of your love is consumed? Lord, help us, we ask, because we tend to go that way often. The word world is next to have a look at, for God so loved the world. We know what John means by the word world, because a lot of the No, I won't go there. I was going to say that it's the way the text flows with, it's towards mankind, towards the world that he's speaking of.

But it's not the cosmos that he's meaning, not the world watching over it and providing for it. He does do that. He does. There is something like a hundred plus times the word world is used by the Apostle John in his letters and in the Gospel message. Only several of those passages are in context with the world around us.

In fact, the world here is referring to mankind, the rebellious system, as we've already deduced from the content of the verses that we've read. he loves the world because the world is, he does not love the world because the world is lovable or deserves his love and attention. For man, the world is indeed corrupted and dead in sins, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. We know this because what may be known about God is manifest in us. For God has shown it to us.

His invisible attributes are clearly seen by being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, Romans 1. Yes, we would just to con... God would be just to condemn us eternally. But what did he do? Read together, let's please.

1 John chapter four. 1 John four. And verses nine and 10. 1 John four, nine and 10. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him.

In this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation of our sins. The Father's mercy and grace is manifested toward us through the essence of who He is. That is love, because it's the essence of the Father, His person. It's the same essence as in the Son. The Son also has the essence of the Father, being of the same essence.

the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son. His sacrifice is the axis of truth. It's the summit, the dizzying heights, the pinnacle of sacrificial love. Can't get any higher. Indeed, it's love in action.

It is the Father's will that this grace should be demonstrated to the world. The greatest act of his love can now be known by the world of fallen humanity and indeed the heavens everywhere. God wills that the world take notice of this greatest sacrificial love. Revelation chapter five, says, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him who sitteth upon the throne and unto the land forever and ever.

Amen. Yep, they're paying attention up there to what's coming on down here. Let's read John 17 together, shall we? John 17. Beginning, you'd say verse 20.

John 17, 20. I do not pray for these alone. but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be one in us, that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory which you have Sorry. Glory which you gave me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one.

I in them, you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. It's incredible if you do a little word study on that word send. It's sown throughout the scriptures. God sent his son and he wanted us to know that. He wants the world to know that.

So we see here that God loves you, not because you're good and not because you're righteous or have done good works to appeal to him. It's rather because you're bad. and you're lost, and yet he desires to save you from your wretched condemnation and to bring you into the bond of unity in his love. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, you, me, us. Here is the consummation of God's love.

Yes, you personally. Personally. The old adage goes, warts and all. This is a difficult thing to really grasp, but despite all our sins, all our failures, all of our shortcomings, God is not wanting to wipe you out. God is not waiting to strike you down and to snuff out your life.

God is love. and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. God is so keen to transform us, to change us by giving us a new birth in his son and to make us just like Jesus. From the very beginning, God's plan was to save humans from every tribe, from every nation and tongue. and abide with them as one together in fellowship eternally.

These are the other sheep who are not of the fold of Israel, but of the Gentile fold, John chapter six, 10, sorry. This is eternal life to know God and Jesus whom he has sent. This was the mission planned before the world was created. Jesus the Messiah was to be sent in a planned assault against rebellion and evil to save what was lost. He is God's lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

God is love and loves us with a sacrificial love. That's the way John is speaking of the world here, from the great mass of fallen humanity, the ocean of lost souls in need of salvation. These are the whoever's, which we find in the second part of the verse. This is not universal salvation for the whole world, but rather for those who hear the voice of the good shepherd. For those who look, just as they did in the wilderness, only those who looked at the serpent on the pole, the brass snake, were healed.

And those who look to Christ lifted up on the cross and believe, here is the offer, freely given. Man has no excuse. We cannot argue against God and what he has done. Jesus speaks of these, whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life, John 3.15.

On the other hand, the text goes on to talk about those who do not believe. They're condemned already, as the word says, because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God, Jesus. These remain in the world to perish because they love darkness rather than light. John 3, 19. So friends, are you a human?

Yes, you are a human. You are included in this call, all of us. We're all unworthy sinners condemned without Jesus. Can you comprehend how much the depth of the love of God is towards you personally? If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, knock on his door.

That's what he asked you to do. That's what he asked us to do. Come to me, Jesus announces, to all who are thirsty. and he will freely give you living waters from the wells of salvation. Will you respond to his call even today?

For today, Isaiah says, is the day of salvation. We're out of time. We shall continue this in another sermon, hopefully, and dig further into the deep riches of the golden verse, John 3.16. 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.

Let's pray, shall we? Oh, glorious Lord, we thank you and praise you for your grace, for your love poured out upon us sinners. Thank you, Lord, for your grace and your mercy, your compassion, the deep riches of your love in giving the Lord Jesus Christ to save us from sin. That you heaped upon him all of your wrath. Our God, we cannot even begin to comprehend, but our hearts rejoice.

We're so thankful for what you have done. We do pray, Father, for one another, for those who are outside of the kingdom gates, that you would draw them to yourself by your glorious grace, that you would bring them, please, to know you, the living God, that they would bend their knees to the Saviour, the one who has the power of sacrificial love. And what an incredible thing that is, our God. We praise you for your gifts toward us. All of that we've read, our God, all you've written in your book, we praise you for it all, our God.

We're so privileged. We're so grateful. Cause our hearts, Lord, to honour your glorious name with the life that you've given to us, serving you, serving one another, and speaking this glorious gospel to this dying world. Be glorified, we pray, our God, in Jesus' name. Amen.