Open up to John 3 with me this morning. We're going to look this morning specifically at John 3:16, but I want to begin reading back at verse 3. "Truly, truly, 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, 'Truly, truly, 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 the 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 its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "You are a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except Him who descended from heaven." the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. This is our verse for the morning. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 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 only Son of God.
Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for these words, especially as we have just come out of Christmas when we celebrated the birth of your Son. Lord, how these words ring in our hearts and our ears this morning. We reread that you love the world so much that it moved you to send your only Son so that whoever would believe would have eternal life. Lord, I pray that by your Spirit you would make that word alive in our hearts today. Lord, we cannot do that. We need your Spirit to take dead sinners, dead souls, and make them alive to these wonderful truths. We pray that You would do so in Jesus' name. Amen.
John 3:16 is probably one of the most famous verses in the Bible. It's perhaps one of the most memorized, well-known. It's one of the most cherished verses that we have Scripture. It's one of the first verses that we maybe teach our children as soon as they're able to hear and to understand and to learn. It's a first verse that we often teach to new believers as they come to know Christ. We see it referenced and quoted everywhere. I don't see it so much, but it used to be when you would go to a sporting event, say a football game, there would be people in the stands typically behind the goalposts John 3:16 written on a piece of paper. You could see it at basketball games. Tim Tebow, if you remember when he was playing, if you saw a close-up of his face with his helmet off, it was 3:16 on his cheeks in that black paint or that chalk under his eyes. Pam and I used to live in Pasadena and we would go to the Rose Bowl Parade many, many times on New Year's Day. And if you stuck around at the end of the parade, there would be often a number of individuals walking behind the parade after it was all over, after the floats and the bands and the horses and everybody else had gone by, there would be people walking behind there with big placards and signs with John 3:16 and other verses. So it's not hard to see why this is such a popular and well-known verse. The reason, among others, is that packed into this one verse are some wonderful, incredibly profound truths realities, some of the most incredibly profound truths and realities found in all of Scripture. And as we end another year, as 2014 comes to a close and we look forward to 2015, what could be more important for us this morning than the great truth that's communicated in this verse? For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. What could be more relevant to us in today, right now. What could be more urgent or important for us than to know where we stand in relationship to God and what He says to us in this verse? And if you're already a believer, what could be more relevant than this verse to those who are around you who maybe don't believe? Let me answer that for you. Nothing. There's absolutely nothing that's more relevant or more important. Whatever you may have on your mind this morning, It's not as important as what this verse communicates to us. Maybe you're thinking about the football games that are going on, all the college bowl games that are taking place this week. Maybe you're thinking about what to have for lunch. Who can I get together with? What can we have? What can I share with them? Maybe you're thinking about emails. What's going on with my email this morning? I forgot to check that before I came to church. Emailed me overnight. Maybe it's New Year's Eve that's on your mind. New Year's Eve is coming up this week, Wednesday night. A lot of people will be gathering together. People are making plans and thoughts and preparations for New Year's Eve. Maybe that's on your mind this morning. But whatever it is, I want to encourage you, ask God to help you set that aside for a moment for the next 30, 40 minutes. Let's consider this verse together. We are all human beings who at any minute could just slip into eternity. And the question for us is, when that happens, when we die, where are we going to spend eternity? Will it be with God in His presence, worshiping Him, enjoying Him, worshiping and fellowshipping with Him forever? Or if we have rejected the offer that's in this verse, will we spend eternity condemned to hell, suffering God's wrath for all of eternity? And what makes the difference between these two options is found in this verse. It clarifies that for us. That's why this verse is so loved, why it's so cherished, why it's so well known. So I'd encourage you again, if you've got other things in your mind, ask God to help you put them aside for the next 30 minutes or so. So my plan this morning is to walk through this verse. There's 8 key words, 8 wonderful words in this verse that we're going to stop and pause on and consider as we work our way through it.
So let's begin. The first one is God. The verse begins, "For God." This is the God of the book of Genesis who spoke the universe into being, the God who said, "Let there be light," and there was. The God who created everything around Him and around us from nothing. The God who created man, He created you and He created me. It says we were created in His image. He's a personal God who thinks and wills and feels. He loves and He hates. He's a moral being. That just simply means that He deals with us in terms of what is right and wrong, deals with us in terms of what is good and bad. He's absolutely perfect. He's unwaveringly in His righteousness, His holiness, and He only does what is right. It's impossible for Him to do anything than anything else or otherwise. All of us, you and I, were made by this God. We were created by Him in His image. That gives Him the right to determine how His creation should live in relationship to Him. How we should obey His commands. How He is to be worshiped. How He is to be honored. He gets to set the rules and the boundaries for us.
We are told in Romans 3:23 that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We have all failed. Somehow, some way to live up to God's standards. We've disobeyed His commands. And therefore, we are all perishing because in His righteousness, He does not sweep disobedience or unrighteousness or our sinfulness under the rug. Our failure to honor Him, to worship Him, to obey Him must be dealt with. We will either bear the consequences on our own, spend an eternity in hell, a place of untold suffering and pain and torment, or our sin and our disobedience will be dealt with on the cross. We've all failed and we all deserve His righteous judgment and His wrath. That's what makes, again, what makes John 3:16 such a wonderful verse. It tells us of the way that God is acting in His love to rescue us from the consequences of our sins, from the consequences of our behavior. This is the God that we are told that so loved the world
Now the next word would logically be "love," but I want to leave that one for the end. It's a significant word in this passage and I want to spend a bit more time on it. So we're going to come back to that one in just a minute. So let's move on to number 2, "the world."
6 · The word 'world' is unpacked to show that God's love extends beyond the Jews to the Gentiles and pagans—a diverse, fallen race in need of salvation
"For God so loved the world." One way to measure love is in terms of who it reaches. It's one thing for us to love our family and our friends, but it's a totally different kind of love to embrace strangers and aliens and outcasts. That's what God is saying here. It would not have been strange for the Jews, for those who are around Him at this time when He heard Him speak this. It would not be uncommon for them or strange for them to hear that God loved them. That's what they've been reading throughout Scripture, that God loved them. They were His people and He loved them. But they were quite comfortable with that. They're quite at ease with that concept. But hearing that God also loved the Gentiles, that He also loved the pagans, most of them would have been a little bit more uncomfortable with that thought and hearing that from Jesus. That's exactly what Jesus is saying here. John tells us that Jesus is saying that God so loved the world. But we do need to be careful with our understanding of this word, the world. If Jesus dies for the world, doesn't that mean that or imply that everyone will be saved? That line of thought, however, doesn't line up with the rest of Scripture. In fact, Jesus will qualify those who will be saved in the second part of this passage with the word "whoever." So Jesus here is using the term "here" to reference the world, not in its totality, not to every single human being, but in its diversity and its sinfulness. The world refers to a fallen race that is in need of salvation. It's the countless number of perishing people, not just the Jews, but the Gentiles and the pagans. Our friends, our neighbors, our family members. This is the group of people where the whomevers in the second part will come from. That whoever believes in Him should not perish. It's this evil fallen world full of evil fallen people that are the object of God's love.
7 · The word 'gave' reveals the direction of the gift—from God to the world—and the nature of the gift: the Father sending the Son not merely to incarnate but to die and suffer God's wrath in our place
3, "For God so loved the world that He gave." First of all, it's important to take note of the direction of the gift. The gift is coming from God to us, to the world. Verse 17 replaces the word "give" with "send" to reinforce this point. It says, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him." In John 10:17-18 as well, we see the reason and the goal of the mission that Jesus was sent out on. It says, "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord." I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge— this is Jesus saying— this charge I have received from my Father. So God's charge to his Son, God's charge to Jesus, was to bring about the redemption of a fallen race. So giving in this case is God's love put into action. God the Father gives the one who is most precious to him, his Son. And he gives him not merely to the world in incarnation, but to the world for crucifixion and for salvation. There's a lot for us to learn and to know about God and His character. There are such things, wonderful things, as His holiness, His righteousness. We can read about His love, His care, His kindness, His omniscience, His sovereignty, His justice. There are many, many other wonderful attributes of God that we can learn and know. Whatever else you may know about God, I encourage you, don't forget this one truth. About His love that's manifested in this passage. God said to His Son Jesus, "I have a mission for you. Those people who are my enemies, I want to save them. And I want you to suffer and die in their place that I can save them." We need to know and we need to remember this morning that God so loved the world that He gave His Son to die and suffer— excuse me— suffer the wrath of God in our place.
8 · The word 'Son' is unpacked to establish three truths: the Son is God, the Son is distinct from the Father, and this relationship has always existed
The Son, number 4, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Now there are a lot of mysterious things if you stop for a minute and ponder about the Son of God, if we think about Jesus Christ and who He was. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Here we are introduced by John to the Word, to the Word which we know now to be Jesus. And then in verse 14, he says, "And the Word became flesh." And dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. So 3 things about the Son that we can learn from this verse. First of all, the Son, or Jesus, is God. God the Son. It's the second person of the Trinity. Secondly, He is with God, but He's distinct from God. This is why He is called the Son, and the one who sent Him is called the Father. Third, this relationship has always existed. From the very beginning, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have been together. And it's hard for us to understand this concept at times. Anyone with children has at some time had to answer the question, where did Jesus come from? How did God come into being? Where did they begin? How did they begin? It's not an easy answer, easy question to answer. Because there is no answer as to how they began or came into being because they simply have always been. It's not an easy concept for our minds to grasp and get around. But yet it's one of the most boggling realities that there is, that God is as Father, as Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, one divine essence, one divine nature in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit, existing in a relationship of infinite purity and joy in a reality without beginning or end. God the Son is the one sent by God the Father.
9 · The word 'believes' is unpacked in three movements: first, not everyone benefits from the cross—only those with faith; second, believing means trusting Jesus to do what He says; third, we must be careful with Christian jargon—receiving Jesus means nothing until we define Him as Lord and Savior, not merely teacher or moral example
Verse 5: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes— So the question this morning is, do you believe? It's a deeply personal question that each of us needs to answer in this life. It's a question that you do not want to have, that you do not want to get wrong. There are dire and severe consequences to missing this one. Either you believe or you don't. Your answer is the one you're going to have to live with for all of eternity. Here's why it's so important. Because if you die not believing, this verse says that you will perish. A few thoughts about the word "believes." First, it's qualified with the word "whoever." Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Not everyone is going to benefit from what Jesus did on the cross. If you don't have the faith that believes, then you will perish. If you do have faith that believes, then you will have eternal life. Not everyone is going to have eternal life. Those without faith will perish, and those without faith will not have eternal life. Secondly, the word believing itself means to embrace something as true. When used in reference to a person as it is here, It means to trust them to be able to do what they say and to accomplish what they say they will do. Just a couple of days from now, Pam and I are going to go on vacation, and we're going to go on plane, by plane, to our destination. So Wednesday morning, we're going to go to the airport, we're going to get on a plane. I know I'm being told that there is a pilot up front who is trained and qualified to fly that plane from Kansas City to our destination. And I get on that plane, I'm gonna get on that plane Wednesday morning believing that to be true. If I didn't believe it, it would be foolish of me to get on the plane on Wednesday morning. So when I say that I have faith or trust in someone, I'm saying that I believe that they will do what they say they will do. They will do what they have been trained to do, what they're capable of doing. So when that pilot tells me he can fly the plane, and I get on the plane, It means that I believe Him. When Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me," I believe Him. That's what faith is. And third, we need to be careful with our use of Christian jargon. Many people who claim to be Christians say they have received Jesus into their life. But what does that mean? How do they mean that? How do they define that? To say, "I've received Jesus," means nothing until you've answered the follow-up question: as what? As who? An unwelcome guest to your party that you wish would leave so that you could have some real fun? Perhaps you see Jesus as nothing more than an enlightened teacher who can give you some good advice on how to live a good life. There are multitudes of ways that we can believe in who Jesus is. There are multiple ways, multiple multitudes of ways that we can think about him and embrace him that have no effect on our eternity. In our eternal destiny. So the question is, how have you received Jesus? What have you received Him as? When we baptize someone here at Providence, we are careful to try and determine the answer to that question. We have a baptism class, we have a questionnaire that they have to fill out, they have an interview with one of the pastors. That's all so we can get to the root of that question. Who do you think that Jesus is? Do you understand Him to be your Lord? Do you understand Him to be your Savior? And then when we go and actually baptize someone, I don't know if you can all hear it, sometimes it's kind of hard out there at the pool or at the baptism place, but they're asked two questions. The first one is, "Are you now trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins and for the fulfillment of all of His promises to you, even eternal life?" That's a question that— do they trust, are they believing in Christ as their Savior? Is He the one that you have confidence in your faith in for the forgiveness of your sins? And second question is, do you intend by God's grace to obey Jesus' teachings and to follow Him as your Lord? We're asking a second question: are you acknowledging that Jesus Christ is your Lord, and are you willing to submit to His teaching and to obey His commands? So who you believe Jesus is is very important. I think one of the worst things that I could do as a pastor would be to baptize someone who doesn't believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Savior. I don't want to give anyone a false sense of security by baptizing that they have now been saved. That doesn't save them. It's what do they believe Jesus is. That's why we work hard to find that out. That's why that question is important to us. Who is Jesus? Who do we believe that He is for us?
10 · The illustration of boarding a plane demonstrates what belief means: trusting someone to do what they say they will do
Just a couple of days from now, Pam and I are going to go on vacation, and we're going to go on plane, by plane, to our destination. So Wednesday morning, we're going to go to the airport, we're going to get on a plane. I know I'm being told that there is a pilot up front who is trained and qualified to fly that plane from Kansas City to our destination. And I get on that plane, I'm gonna get on that plane Wednesday morning believing that to be true. If I didn't believe it, it would be foolish of me to get on the plane on Wednesday morning. So when I say that I have faith or trust in someone, I'm saying that I believe that they will do what they say they will do. They will do what they have been trained to do, what they're capable of doing. So when that pilot tells me he can fly the plane, and I get on the plane, It means that I believe Him.
11 · The pastor steps into a shepherding moment to explain Providence's baptism process, clarifying why the church takes care to determine what each candidate believes about Jesus—Savior and Lord—before baptizing, so as not to give false assurance
When we baptize someone here at Providence, we are careful to try and determine the answer to that question. We have a baptism class, we have a questionnaire that they have to fill out, they have an interview with one of the pastors. That's all so we can get to the root of that question. Who do you think that Jesus is? Do you understand Him to be your Lord? Do you understand Him to be your Savior? And then when we go and actually baptize someone, I don't know if you can all hear it, sometimes it's kind of hard out there at the pool or at the baptism place, but they're asked two questions. The first one is, "Are you now trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins and for the fulfillment of all of His promises to you, even eternal life?" That's a question that— do they trust, are they believing in Christ as their Savior? Is He the one that you have confidence in your faith in for the forgiveness of your sins? And second question is, do you intend by God's grace to obey Jesus' teachings and to follow Him as your Lord? We're asking a second question: are you acknowledging that Jesus Christ is your Lord, and are you willing to submit to His teaching and to obey His commands? So who you believe Jesus is is very important. I think one of the worst things that I could do as a pastor would be to baptize someone who doesn't believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Savior. I don't want to give anyone a false sense of security by baptizing that they have now been saved. That doesn't save them. It's what do they believe Jesus is. That's why we work hard to find that out. That's why that question is important to us. Who is Jesus? Who do we believe that He is for us?
12 · The word 'perish' is unpacked as eternal condemnation—not annihilation, but eternal existence under God's wrath
6, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish." It's important to see that perish is the alternative here to eternal life. Perishing is eternal. Those who are perishing will continue to exist, but it isn't eternal life, it's eternal condemnation. Verse 18 describes perishing as being condemned. Condemnation is simply a legal word. It refers to a judgment or sentence that comes down from a judge. So John 3:18, "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already." And God's judgment and His wrath remains on unrepentant sinners. We see this in John 3:36, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life." but the wrath of God remains on him. So those who don't believe are already under condemnation, as verse 18 says, and because of their unbelief and because they remain unrepentant, verse 36 says that it will remain on those, on those individuals. We are all deserving of condemnation. We are all dead in our sins and our trespasses, and God owes us nothing. Absolutely nothing. Stop and think about that for a minute. What does God owe us? Unrepentant sinners. What does He owe an unrepentant sinner? Nothing. If God were to pass us over, if God were to have passed me over and chosen not to awaken me, chosen not to bring new life to me, He would have done no wrong to me by doing so. It's common when God is interacting with the human race that there is often the promise of blessing for those who believe and the threat of curse for those who choose to reject, to reject Him. So we shouldn't be surprised to see that here as well. Though God takes no pleasure, it tells us in Ezekiel 18, in the death of anyone, there's nothing He can do for those who refuse to believe. None of us can afford to be indifferent regarding the condemnation of those who believe. There's nothing that you can imagine no matter how hard you might try to come up with something that would be more terrifying, more frightening, than to spend all of eternity in hell under the wrath of God, under the wrath of a sovereign holy God. There is nothing, nothing worse. Perishing means to be condemned to hell for all of eternity, suffering the wrath of God forever. It's a terrifying punishment that has no end. And the thought of it should be a very sobering thought for all of us.
13 · The word 'eternal life' is unpacked as a new life—not a continuation of this life, but the new heavens and new earth with no sin, shame, or pain
7, eternal life. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." The offer for those who believe is this: eternal life. Well, it does imply living forever. It's not just a continuation of this life. That's not a continuation of our current life. The true meaning of this life is that if we believe, We get eternal life and that will be a new life. The new heavens and the new earth. These old bodies, this sinful nature, no more sin, no more shame, no more crying, no more tears, no more pain. That's all going to be wiped away. The eternal life that we inherit, the eternal life that we get through Christ is a life of joy. It's a new life. It's one to be looked forward to. It's one of excitement. It's one of honoring and worshiping God. So what happens? Basically this: God takes a dead, rebellious, disinterested individual who's headed away from God, and God in His sovereign choice and His love, He sends the Spirit to regenerate us. There's a quickening and there's an awakening. The promise of Ezekiel 36 is fulfilled. It says, "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And in that moment when our faith is awakened, we are united to Christ in whom we inherit eternal life. The Holy Spirit unites us with Christ, and in that instant we are born again. We who were a moment ago were dead are now made to believe, were made alive and we can believe. And in that instance, we've been united with the Son of God. We have eternal life through His life.
14 · The pastor transitions to the eighth and final word—'love'—which he announces will occupy the rest of the sermon
Let's go back and spend the rest of the morning, rest of the time on the word love. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."
15 · The word 'love' is unpacked as God's universal offer of salvation—a love so intense it moves God to action, opening a real door so that anyone who believes will have eternal life
So the question is this morning about this passage is about God's love. How does God love the world according to John 3:16? Jesus clearly says, "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." A few obvious things about this verse. First of all, one, God loves the world. That is, He loves the fallen, sinful human race. This love of God is of such a nature and such of a kind and such an intensity and magnitude that it moves God to take action. It moves him to send his Son to die for whoever would believe. In other words, this love opens up a real door so that anyone who believes in the Son will enter eternal life. It's the great third— this is the great message of the church. It may be spoken, it may be applied to anyone and everyone without exception. We should shout it from the rooftops to anyone who will listen, anyone who will hear it. We need to proclaim it boldly as we go about our daily lives. It's what motivates us in evangelism. It's a love that says, "If you believe in my Son, I will give you eternal life. If you believe, your sins have been canceled." When we go out and tell anyone that God loves you, That's a true statement. And this is how much He loves you. He gave His Son to die so that if you would believe, your sins will be forgiven and you will have eternal life. That's what the love of God means and promises and does in John 3:16. This verse clearly communicates the free offer of the gospel. There are no limits to this offer. It goes out to all people regardless of race or nationality. It goes out to everyone regardless of age or social status. The message is the same for every sinner. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever would believe would not perish but have eternal life.
16 · The pastor signals a major turn in the argument: the problem arises when people use the love in John 3:16 to nullify other expressions of God's love revealed elsewhere in Scripture
So what's the problem with this verse and definition of love? Nothing. Unless, of course, you try to make this expression of God's love cancel out other expressions of God's love in Scripture. Which is what a lot of people try to do.
17 · The pastor tells his own story: he learned John 3:16 at age 8, kept the Bible his whole life, never forgot the verse—but did not believe it until age 20
When I was a child, my parents sent me to the Overland Park Presbyterian Church. When I was a kid, we lived over on 76th and Metcalf, 78th and Metcalf, somewhere around there. And right across the street on the other side of Metcalf from us, we lived on the east side, on the west side of Metcalf was the Overland Park Presbyterian Church. My parents were not believers, they were not Christians, but my grandparents on my dad's side were. And at the urging of my grandparents, my mom or my dad would get up on Sunday morning, put my sister and I, get us dressed, take us across the street, drop us off at the Overland Park Presbyterian Church, send us up to children's ministry. They'd get back in their car, go home, go back to bed. An hour later, one of them would get up, drive back across the street, probably more than half a mile away from our house, and come get us. I remember those days. I remember getting up and going. I was probably 7 or 8 at the time. I got a Bible that they gave me, the Overland Park Presbyterian Church. It's in my office still. It says, "Given to Dave Quiller, September 8th, 1968." I remember it. I still have that Bible. When we moved around, and we moved a lot when I was a kid, it always got boxed up, put in the moving truck, and unboxed when we got to the new home, and went back on my shelf. There was one verse that I was taught as a child, one verse that I remembered through my childhood years, through my teenage years. Guess which verse? They taught me John 3:16, and I never forgot that verse. I never went back to church again after I was 8, but I never forgot that verse. I knew the offer. I had it memorized. But I didn't believe it. I didn't really believe it at the time. The offer can't and doesn't save us.
18 · The unit establishes the controlling theological claim of the sermon's second half: God has more than one degree of love
God has more than one degree of love. His love can be evaluated and measured different ways. His love is a multifaceted or multidimensional love. God the Father loves His Son more than He loves the birds who are out in the trees. Maybe not so many birds out this morning, but in the springtime they'll be back. He's loving towards all of creation, yet it's clear that He has a special love for His own people. We're the same way. I've got a favorite sofa that reclines on one end, and I love to go home in the evening after dinner when the dishes are done and all the chores are done. I love to sit down in that sofa and recline it back. It's very resting, it's restful, it's comfortable. I can take a nap there, I can relax there. But if there was a fire in my house, you think that I would race by my family, my wife and my kids who might be perishing in that fire, and then try to pick up that sofa and drag it out? Of course I wouldn't. I would go after that which I cherish even more, more than that sofa. I'd go after and try to save my wife and my children.
19 · The hypothetical fire scenario illustrates that we love different things in different degrees—the pastor would not save his sofa instead of his family—just as God loves His people in a special way distinct from His love for creation
I've got a favorite sofa that reclines on one end, and I love to go home in the evening after dinner when the dishes are done and all the chores are done. I love to sit down in that sofa and recline it back. It's very resting, it's restful, it's comfortable. I can take a nap there, I can relax there. But if there was a fire in my house, you think that I would race by my family, my wife and my kids who might be perishing in that fire, and then try to pick up that sofa and drag it out? Of course I wouldn't. I would go after that which I cherish even more, more than that sofa. I'd go after and try to save my wife and my children.
20 · The unit announces the organizing structure for the rest of the exposition: three distinct expressions of God's love found in Scripture, all of which are legitimate and none of which should be nullified by the others
There are 3 different kinds of expressions of God's love that we can see in Scripture. One of which many people try to make null and void by explaining away using the love in John 3:16. All expressions of God's love have their place. They're all meant to help us, to bless us, to encourage us, and to strengthen us.
21 · The pastor signals the first of three expressions of God's love: the intra-Trinitarian love between Father and Son
First, there again, there's God's love for His Son and the Son's love for the Father.
22 · The first expression of God's love is the intra-Trinitarian love between Father and Son, cited from John 3:35 and John 14:31
John 3:35 says, "The Father loves the Son and has given all things in His hand." John 14:31, Jesus says, "I do as the Father has commanded me so that the world may know that I love the Father."
23 · The second expression of God's love is His providential care for all creation, including His enemies—He makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust
Secondly, God loves His creation and He sustains it, even those who are His enemies. For those who are evil, Matthew 5:45, Jesus tells us that God makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Luke 6:35, He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. God's love for creation causes Him to provide rain, sunshine, and goodness, and kindness to the good, to the just, to the unjust, to the ungrateful, and the evil as well.
24 · The third expression of God's love—electing love—is the most precious: it goes beyond the free offer of the gospel to choose a people for Himself, overcoming rebellion and resistance to bring them to faith
So as beautiful as these expressions of love are, there's a more precious expression of God's love that we can find in the Bible. It's the love that causes God to go beyond the free offer of the gospel here in this passage and choose a people for himself, bringing them to faith and making it possible for them to believe. We call this love God's electing love. And with this love, God goes way beyond the offer that is in John 3:16. Expression of love, the electing love, overcomes our rebellion It overcomes our resistance, and through this kind of love, God makes us His own. We see examples of this kind of love throughout Scripture. Beginning back in Deuteronomy 6:6, it said, "The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you." and chose you, for you were the fewest of all the peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you. Deuteronomy 10:14: Behold, to the Lord your God belongs heaven and the heaven of the heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set His heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. The point here is that God did not offer to be God's offered to be Israel's God if they would just like Him to be. He made them— He made them His own. It was a unilateral decision. He took them for Himself. He sovereignly called Abraham, who was a pagan worshiper, and made him His own. It wasn't like God went up to Abraham one day and said— and entered into negotiations, says, "How about if I be your God and you be My people?" You think that might be a good plan? God didn't go to Abraham and then Frank and Jesse and somebody else and enter into negotiation to see who could give Him the best deal. He didn't negotiate with anybody. He went, He picked Abraham. He chose Abraham and made Abraham and his descendants His people. Why did God choose Abraham and his descendants? He chose and loved them because He loved them. End of story. That's what electing love is. God choosing us. God choosing to love us.
25 · The pastor transitions from Old Testament examples of electing love to the New Testament reality of regeneration—the same sovereign, electing love at work in the new birth
You see the same kind of love in God's raising us from our spiritual death and causing us to be born again.
26 · The new birth happens at the Spirit's sovereign will—we cannot control the Spirit any more than we can control the wind
Remember in John 3:8 as we began this passage this morning, it said, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes." So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Being born again happens to us at the Spirit's will. We cannot control the wind, nor can we control the Holy Spirit. The Spirit comes and goes with His regenerating power as He pleases. Ephesians 2:4-5 calls this not just love, but great love. God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
27 · The pastor introduces a quotation from Charles Spurgeon to reinforce the Spirit's sovereign work in regeneration
Charles Spurgeon writes this, he says,