John 3 verse 16

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2023 pm – ANDREW McCULLOUGH

JOHN 3 VERSES 1 TO 16

Many people believe that the third chapter in the gospel of John is the greatest chapter in the bible.  It is certainly one of most familiar.  It contains what is the best known verse in the scriptures.  This may be the first verse that we learn and could be the last verse we forget.  Here is one of the great treasures of the scriptures.  It is like a jewel that sparkles and shines with divine truth.  There is greater value in its truth than all the riches in the world.  If a person believes these words they are given the greatest riches of God’s grace, they will experience the wonders of heaven.  It is the gospel in a nutshell.  The gospel in 1 sentence.  It is a popular roadside text.  Many people have found the road to eternal life through this verse.  Perhaps more has been said of this verse than any other in the bible.  It is so simple and sublime that a child can grasp it yet so deep that we can understand it.

 

The context – the background scene concerns a man called Nicodemus, a ruler of the Pharisees – “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: [2] The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.”  Here is one of the greatest encounters recorded in the ministry of Christ.  Often the Pharisees were critical towards him yet Nicodemus was curious.  As he watched Jesus there was a conviction in his heart that this teacher was from God.  Have you studied all that Jesus began to do and teach?  The only logical conclusion you can come to that this is the Christ the Saviour of the world.  People have speculated why he came at night – too busy during the day, did the fear of being seen with Christ enter into his life?  Whatever the reason it might be, he was sincere and seeking.  The man comes full of questions.  Religion can give him no answers.  In this chapter we see man’s supreme need – he needs to come into a right relationship with God who controls this life, opens the door to eternal life.  Jesus tells him plainly “you must be born again”.  It is God cleansing our life from sin.  It is radical and personal as if born all over again.  In that experience we are brought into the family of God.

 

The contents – if all of the Bible were taken away and all we had was this verse we would find enough gospel truth to save us.  Here is the core of the message.  The gospel in the first 6 words – God – only – son – perish – everlasting - life.  There are 25 words in John 3 verse 16 – 12 about God, 12 about me with the Son in the centre.  We have the world’s greatest truth – Jesus gave it to Nicodemus repeatedly.  In Genesis 1 the creative work of God is seen 10 times in the words “and God said.”  Exodus 20 shows the legalistic work of God in giving the 10 Commandments and in John 3 verse 16 the redemptive work of God in 10 words that revolves:

 

God – loved – world – gave – son – whosoever – believeth – perish – have – life

 

The verse divides into 4 simple sentences.

 

The cause of salvation – “for God so loved the world”.  God’s love strikes a resounding note in all our hearts.  Everyone enjoys a good love story in a book or film.  Isn’t it better in real life?  To hear how a young couple’s love blossomed between them that leads them into marriage the closest of all relationships.  The fact of God’s love – “for God so loved the world.”  The disciple who was closest to Christ saw with his eyes the Son of God moved with compassion as he saw the sheep without a shepherd.  Many have a twisted and distorted view of God that has been shaped by culture.  It paints God as a God of wrath.  The heathen religions state that their God must be appeased.  No-one can be described as loving as God himself. 

 

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

The guilty pair, bowed down with care,

God gave His Son to win;

His erring child He reconciled

And pardoned from his sin

 

O love of God how rich and pure

How measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure –

The saints’ and angels’ song

 

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made;

Were 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 stretched from sky to sky

 

John frequently used love in his writings and sums it up later by saying “God is love.”

 

The focus of God’s love – he is not referring to the natural world but the people in it.  You and I.  Someone once said “It would have been wonderful if God had said I love America or I love Europe or I love Asia or I love Africa, those great continents with teaming millions but instead he declared his love for the whole world.”  This was a wicked, wayward world that had turned against him.  Henry Moorhouse was a preacher for D L Moody in Chicago and said “‘for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you, but I cannot do it with this poor stammering tongue.  If I could borrow Jacob’s ladder and climb up into heaven and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Almighty, to tell me how much love the Father has for the world, all he could say would be: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

 

The cost of salvation – “that he gave his only begotten Son”.  The love of God is not only global but sacrificial.  If you want evidence look at the Lord.  The greatest gift ever given – “his only begotten son”.  The word “begotten” is only used by John – he used it in chapter 1.  Its meaning – being the only one of his class or kind.  The uniqueness of Jesus.  In his writing John focuses on his deity.  God manifested in the flesh. He has always been but in the second person of God he was manifested to men and women. Salvation is free to man but by no means free to Christ himself.  The bible clearly tells us “he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8 verse 32)  The ultimate cost of salvation is seen at the cross.  Jesus Christ dying in the place of sinners.  “But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5 verse 8)  “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God (1 Peter 3 verse 18)  “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him.  Herein is love not that we loved him but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4 verses 9 and 10)

 

The condition of salvation – “that whosoever would believe in him.”  Nicodemus had been listening intently to Jesus.  In the previous verses he head the Saviour remind him of a familiar story in Jewish history that is found in Numbers 21.  Many of his Jewish ancestors had died because of their sin as snakes bit them in the desert.  God told them to lift up a pole and if anyone looked at it they would live.  Jesus would be the one lifted up for all to see.  If anyone looks to him they will be saved.  Verses 14 and 15 show us the simple facts – the fact of sin, the fact of substitution and the face of salvation.  Jesus repeats it here at the end of verse 16.  The condition is so simple.  The people are no Christians.  It is expansive – “whosever”.  It encompasses all people universally and each person individually as though you are the only one in the world.  John chapters 3 and 4 tell the stories of one man and one woman.  One was a Jew and the other a Samaritan.  One was an exemplary character, the other an outcast in the community.  It does not matter who we are or what we have done or where we come from, God reaches out to us.  God offers to you the wonder of God’s forgiveness from sin.  The promise of heaven if you will come.  It is an all expansive condition.  It is an exclusive condition.  4 times Jesus highlights the necessity of believing in him – verses 12, 15, 16 and 18.  Believe is another one of John’s words – he uses it 100 times.  We are commanded to be saved.  Paul called to the Philippian jailer told him “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”  Many will speak of their faith.  It sounds a positive thing but what is our faith in?  In church ordinances?  In morality?  Commendable but not sufficient for salvation.  Nicodemus was deeply religious.  So many are people of faith.  Religious, lovely people but not yet converted.  Nicodemus heard about his spiritual need.  He alone was the one he needed for salvation.  There are only 2 classes in the world Jesus said – the believing and the unbelieving.  We need to have faith in Christ alone as Saviour if we are to be in heaven.  The greatest sin we could commit is to not believe in Christ as Saviour.  Have I embraced him as Lord and Saviour?  Have I put my trust in him as Saviour?

 

The consequence of salvation – “shall not perish but have everlasting life.”  2 distinctly different words – perish and life tonight.  In a stormy sea the disciples of Jesus cried out “Lord save us, we perish”.  They recognised the danger they were in.  They cried out to the only one who could help.  Someone has said that the word “perish” has the very hiss of hell in it.  God’s love is only one aspect of his character.  There is also his holy and just character.  He must punish sin.  He warned many times of hell – “except ye repent ye shall all perish.”  The great news – the gospel is not the denial of hell but the delivery from everlasting punishment for our sin.  Through the Lord we can experience everlasting life and that begins the moment we believe in him personally.  He never promised to those who believed in him an easy life.  There will be struggles and temptations.  It is an everlasting life.  This great verse begins with God as the one with no beginning and ends with a life that has no ending.  Perhaps you are thinking of Nicodemus – did his conversation with Jesus change his life?  In John 19 he is found at the cross along with Joseph of Arimathea.   When many others forsook Jesus they cared for Christ’s body and placed it in a tomb.  He was nailing his colours to the mast.  Sharing and showing that he was a follower of Christ.  Is there evidence in your life that you are in a real relationship with Jesus?  John 3 verse 16 is the most treasured verse in the bible. 

 

It tells us of the cause of salvation – “for God so loved the world”

It points to the cost of salvation – “that he gave his only begotten son”

It explains the condition of salvation – “that whosoever believes on him”

And the assurance of the consequence of salvation - “should not perish but have everlasting life.”