For God So Loved
John 3:16
Intro
Perhaps you have heard the story about the bride and groom who ordered their wedding cake and
requested a particular Scripture verse written on the top with frosting.
It was to be 1 John 4:18, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear."
Unfortunately the baker didn't know the Bible all that well, and put on John 4:18,
"You have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband..."
There would have been no such confusion or embarrassment if they had chosen John 3:16, a verse that
almost everybody knows, whether they know their Bibles well or not. It is displayed on license plate
frames, and billboards, and most on banners that always seem to find their way into the background shots
at baseball games and golf tournaments.
"John 3:16" - the verse that needs not to be spelled out, because everyone already knows it.
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall
not perish but have everlasting life.”
This is the most outstanding verse in all Scripture. In this compact and profound verse, and in every word
and phrase, thousands upon thousands of pages have been written. Messages upon thousands of messages
have been preached.
Martin Luther called it “The Gospel in miniature form.”
It's at this time of the year, Christmas time that we are very much aware of this great truth of John 3:16
that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The real story of Christmas is the story of
a loving God. The Bible says God is love. It is consistent with God's nature of love and grace.
And that wonderful truth is unique only to the Christian faith. The reason it is unique to Christianity is
because Christianity is the only religion that teaches about God sending His Son to be a sacrifice for
humanity. All other religions are about humanity trying to reach to God, but Christianity is God reaching
to humanity.
Example: A man drowning in quicksand.
The Hindu came along and said, “Ah, you will be reincarnated into another form.”
Buddha came along and said, “Ah, it is part of life to suffer.”
Mohammad came along and said, “Ah, tis the will of Allah that you should die.”
Jesus came by and said, “Here my friend, take my hand I will give you life and life more abundantly.”
“FOR” is a conjunction, indicative of cause (the reason for, the basis for).
The verse first of all presents the fact of God. “FOR GOD” The Bible never tries to prove the existence of
God, it simply states the existence of God. It assumes the existence of God.
The Scriptures start with the premise of God, “In the beginning God” (Gen. 1:1).
But this God is a person who loves. He is not a cosmic force or a power without personality. He has
affections and feelings. God is personal and He is closer than our breath as the Scriptures says.
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Throughout Scripture we see that God is a personal God.
Isaiah 49:15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has
borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you.”
Hosea 11:4 “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck
and bent down to feed them.”
1 John 4:16 declares, “God is love.” Period! “Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”
God is the Author and Source of love. Love is God and comes from God. His love is the highest form of
love, agape. It is the most pure, the most perfect and complete. He is the epitome of all that love is!
“FOR GOD SO LOVED.” “So” is an adverb which qualifies how He loves. In a certain degree He loves.
To such an extent He loves the world. How? By giving. But what or who does He love?
“FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD.” World here means the Cosmos. It means the whole world or
universe.
In this context Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, a Pharisee and religious leader. To a Pharisee they felt that
they were the true ones loved by God because according to their beliefs God hated the wicked and already
had cursed them to damnation. They were the chosen race, the legitimate sons of Abraham. So when Jesus
declares that God so loved the world, it shocked Nicodemus.
The Bible says about Jesus, “because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9).
*There is nothing you can do to make God love you more! There is nothing you can do to make God love
you less! His love is absolutely unconditional, impartial, everlasting, infinite and perfect! God loves every
one, the whole world unconditionally.
DEISM: There is a belief called “deism” which teaches that God the Creator exists but that having created
this world or the cosmos, he has abandoned it and is no longer interested in it or involved in it. Deism goes
against what John 3:16 teaches.
The well known deist philosopher, Fredrick Nietzsche in a similar way stated that God began creation but
he died or no longer exists. Nietzsche started the “God is dead” philosophy.
Sometime ago I saw a cartoon with 2 frames where you see the first billboard that says,
“God is dead! Signed Nietzsche”.
In the second frame you see the second billboard which says, “Nietzsche is dead! Signed God.”
But the Bible declares and affirms that God not only created the cosmos, but that He is also involved and
very interested in His creation so much so that He did something very, very personal…
“HE GAVE HIS ONE AND ONLY SON”
Jesus Christ is the Love of God.
Scripture declares, “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 God but that
He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation (atoning sacrifice) for our sins” (I John 4:9-10).
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Propitiation: means the bringing together of two who have been enemies into a relationship of peace and
friendship.
Christmas is a message of love. God loved so much He gave His best, His Son. His Son is God also. God
became flesh so that He would dwell with us. How personal and how intimate is that?!
God took the initiative. God was not pressured or forced to do what He did. No one obligated Him, but He
did it voluntarily and out of the pure motive of love for His creation. God loves humanity. He desires and
wants to love. This is His nature, His character and His personality. WOW!
“THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM”
To experience His love and salvation is not for an exclusive people, a special religious people, or for the
goody, goody. It is for whoever, whatever class, race, status, sex, age or colour.
1 Timothy 2:3-4 “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men (people) to be saved and to
come to a knowledge of the truth.”
Anyone – anyone who believes.
BELIEVE: pisteuo (pist-yoo'-o); to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. to
entrust (especially one's spiritual well-being to Christ): believe, commit (to trust), put in trust with.
To believe does not simply mean to believe in the existence of, in this case the existence of God.
James 2:19 “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder.”
Example: Suppose you had an incurable disease and I were to tell you that I knew of a doctor who could
treat your sickness. Two ways you could respond. You perhaps might say, yes, thank you for letting me
know about this doctor. Good-bye. OR you would respond by saying, “please give me his name and how I
can get a hold of him because I want him to treat me.” Now you are entrusting your life into the hands of
the doctor. Not just merely believing that he exists but trusting him with your life.
That’s what the word Believe means. It is to commit and put your trust in God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
“SHALL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of
men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
We cannot deny the fact that eternity is in our hearts. There is a voice deep within us that says there is an
eternity. It is the heart and conscience.
Dying words of famous Atheists
Honore Mirabeau, a leading political organizer of the French Revolution and atheist said: "My sufferings
are intolerable: I have in me a hundred years of life, but not a moment's courage. Give me more opium
that I may not think of eternity! 0 Christ, 0 Jesus Christ!"
J. H. Huxley
A news paper article referred to a striking story in an anonymous book of memoirs published not long ago.
The writer met the woman who nursed the great agnostic, Professor J. H. Huxley, through his last illness.
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She said that as he lay dying the great skeptic suddenly looked up at some sight invisible to mortal eyes,
and, staring a while, whispered at last, “So it is true.”
We cannot deny the fact that God put eternity into every human being. Humanity feels the tug of eternity
and desires everlasting life. But the most important question is, “Where will you spend your eternity?”
If you believe in God’s Son you will live forever with Him in heaven!
In John 3:18 Jesus states clearly, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not
believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Conclusion
It's very easy to feel like God doesn't love you, or that He has somehow left you to make it through life on
your own. Perhaps you felt loved by God sometime in the past but you don't feel very loved by God now.
However, learning to live with a conscious awareness of God's love for you will change your whole life!
Conscious awareness of God's love for you can overcome the many crippling fears of life. "Perfect Love
casts out fear" (1 John 4:18).
Conscious awareness of God's love for you can bring about a proper sense of dignity--a healthy self
worth. After all, if you matter to God, you really matter!
Conscious awareness of God's love for you can bring about a sense of security in life. The people of God
should not be afraid of taking Godly risks.
Conscious awareness of God's love for you can bring about a deep sense of peace in an uncertain and
unstable world- a sense of optimism about the future because you know who holds the future and you
know where you will spend eternity.
God gave His best for you and for me. We are blessed beyond measure!
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