Lent 4                                              John 3:14-21                                                3/26/06

                                                        “ John 3:16”

 

One of the first Bible verses most of us learned was John 3:16.  It is so familiar that you sometimes see it printed on a bed sheet held up amidst the crowd at athletic events. 

 

Of course, I’ve also heard that some Biblically illiterate folks thinks those banners are attempts to help a friend named John find his seat mates in Section 3 Seat 16.  

 

But, most people know that the reference is to, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

 

Today, I’d like to change just one word in the first half of the verse so that it reads,  “For God so loved me that He gave His only Son...”    Now, I’d like you to say it with me.  Let’s say it slowly.  Allow the meaning to really sink into your soul.  Please join me, “For God so loved me that He gave His only Son...”        

 

Just think about that for a moment.  Two thousand years (give or take a decade or two) before any of us was even born, the almighty God sent the One who was truly a part of Godself to suffer and die out of love for each one of us – for you and for me.

 

We don’t deserve it – not on our very best day.  We can’t earn this grace filled act or begin to repay God for this sacrifice.  It was an act of love beyond all imagining carried out even in the face of human rejection of that grace.

 

Those of us raised in the church and familiar with this verse may over time lose touch with the enormity of God’s gift of His Son.  Think for a moment though.  What parent among us could bear to send a child of ours into a situation where we were absolutely certain that that child would be abused, tortured and killed in the most gruesome way ever devised by man?

 

God did even more than this because the Son is part of God, so God suffered not only the pain of losing a child, God felt every lash, every slap in the face, every blow of hammer to nail.  God hung there dying for a drink of water.  God hung there until the last breath shuddered forth from that dying body.

 

“For God so loved you...”  “For God so loved me...”

 

And what do we receive because of this ultimate sacrifice?  We get eternal life rather than perishing.  We don’t have to worry about ceasing to exist and having our lives be meaningless.  We don’t have to worry that the devil might claim us and drag us into some flaming pit.  We don’t have to worry that when judgment day comes God will condemn us for that candy bar we stole as a child, that lie we told as a youth, that unkind word we spoke as an adult.  We don’t even have to worry that God will condemn us for some really awful sin we may have committed, perhaps unknown to anyone but God.

 

In fact, the only way we can be condemned is if we choose condemnation by refusing to believe in the Son.  In other words, we perish only if we refuse to accept the gift of salvation.

 

Furthermore, this gift doesn’t get held in some kind of cosmic layaway department until we die, much less until Judgment Day.  Eternal life starts the very moment we begin to believe.  Since eternal life is life in relationship with God, we have it right from the beginning of life.  God is with us every moment, ready to comfort, strengthen, uplift, guide and celebrate us.  God wraps us in His love every moment of every day.  All that is necessary for us to gain the awareness of His loving presence is belief.

 

Believing though is not just or even primarily some doctrine or teaching we learn and declare we agree to.  Believing is not a hoop we jump through to get to the other side.  Believing is more like taking a long journey.  Believing is a way of life.  Believing is getting up in the morning and taking God’s hand, then noticing throughout the day that we can still hold it and completing our day knowing that God will hold our hand even while we sleep.

 

Thus, we individually live out John 3:16

 

Now, my Scripture prof. at seminary would be appalled if I ended my sermon there.  I’ve probably committed every error that can be committed in interpretation and application of a passage...and perhaps committed some heresy along the way as well.

 

The verse doesn’t say, “God so loved me (or even you) that He gave His only Son”.  It clearly says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son...”  God gave His Son and suffered through Him for the sake of all people – for the sake of the little Jewish boys and girls in Jesus day, for the Roman soldiers and slaves in distant cities of the Roman Empire, for popes through the ages and Martin Luther and all the reformers, for kings and peasants, pilgrim and Indians, for Americans, Frenchmen, Iraqis, Japanese and Afghanis.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that all who believe should not perish but have eternal life.”

 

But the world can only come to believe if individuals, like you and I, believe and believe deeply and passionately.  It is only when we let John 3:16 burrow deep into our hearts and then burst forth with joy that the world can be effected.  It is only when each believer sees the journey he or she is on as an opportunity to invite others to join that the world can come to believe.  It is through our words and lifestyle that the world can be helped to accept Jesus.

 

John 3:16 is about you and me in relationship with God through His Son, and it is you and me in relationship with the world proclaiming the gift God offers.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that all those who believe in Him may not perish, but may have eternal life.”  Amen