John 3:16 KJV

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VICTORY OUTREACH CAPETOWN CELEBRATION SERVICE

18TH FEBRUARY 2024 PREACHER: P.G. NDU

TITLE: JOHN THREE SIXTEEN

(JOHN 3:16)

16 FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN

SON, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

BACKGROUND TO THE TEXT:

John 3 provides profound insights into the transformative power of faith in Jesus Christ and the overwhelming depth of God's love for humanity. It serves as a call to spiritual rebirth, to step out of darkness into God's marvelous light. This chapter prompts us to experience and share the incredible love that God offers us through His Son, encouraging a life illuminated by truth and dedicated to the glory of God.

John 3 paints a vivid picture of spiritual transformation, divine love, and eternal life through Jesus' enlightening conversation with Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin. Jesus introduces the concept of being “born again” spiritually to inherit the Kingdom of God. The chapter also contains one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, which is our focus today, John 3:16, presenting God's incredible love for the world. Furthermore, it highlights John the Baptist's testimony affirming Jesus' divinity and superior role.

THE HEART OF THE MATTER IN JOHN 3:16

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON

  • FOR GOD                      –         The infinite one
  • SO                                   –         The infinite degree
  • LOVED                           –         The infinite compassion
  • THE WORLD                 –         The infinite confusion
  • THAT HE GAVE            –         The infinite expression
  • His Only Begotten Son –      The infinite gift

THREE IDEAS TO EXPLORE:

  1. THE FATHER’S LOVE

A revelation of the father’s love.

2.    THE WORLD

A revelation of the identity of the world as used here

3.    THE GIFT

A revelation of the gift of His son

JOHN 3:16 AMPC:

16For God so GREATLY LOVED and DEARLY PRIZED the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten ([a]unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

  • Greatly Loved
    • Dearly Prized

God has paid and placed a high PREMIUM on us. (Greatly Loved and Dearly Prized)

PREMIUM:

  • Is from the Latin word ‘Praemium’ which means ‘REWARD’
  • Is a price paid for above and beyond some basic or intrinsic value
  • Relatedly; PREMIUM is a price paid for Protection from LOSS, HAZARD or HARM e.g. Insurance premiums.
  • As an adjective, PREMIUM implies something of SUPERIOR QUALITY that COSTS MORE
  • The Love that God has for ALL His Creation is one of a superior quality.
  • The highest of the qualities that can ever be.
  • This Love costs Him the greatest and the highest price which no created being can ever pay but Him alone
  • The sinless life of His dear son, Jesus Christ was the price paid.
  • To fully understand and experience the benefits of this Love given, the price paid and the sacrifice made;
  • We’ve got to have A REVELATION OF;

1.  THE FATHER’S LOVE

A revelation of the father’s love.

John 3:16……“For God so loved…”

Some people know God as a judge. Some know God as a creator. Some think of God as an untouchable ideal. But here Jesus tells us that God is a lover. Whatever happens next in this sentence is motivated by God’s love.

There is no sweeter verse in the Bible than this. It declares:

  • That God is love.
    • That He loved the world instead of hating it.
    • That He “SO” loved that He gave His Son. The Son did not come to appease the Father's wrath, but the Father sent him because He loved SO WELL.
    • That He came to keep men from perishing.
  • God’s love for mankind is pure, spontaneous, and constant.
  • Jesus did not die on the cross to compel God to love people, but because he already loved them, the cross being a result of God’s love, not the cause of it.
  • God’s holy love is not inconsistent with His wrath, for God’s love extends to man himself, but not to the sins that man is guilty of.
  • However, His Love provides for mankind a propitiation for his sins in Jesus Christ.

WHY DOES GOD LOVE?:

  • God does not love us because He is God or a deity
  • God does not love because is loving or able to love.
  • God does not love because He is powerful
  • God does not love because He wants to
  • God does not even love us because we merited it, can merit it, or did anything to deserve it

Here’s Why!

1 JOHN 4:7-10 kjv

7Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8He that loveth not knoweth not God; FOR GOD IS LOVE.

9In 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. 10Herein is love, not

that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

J GOD IS LOVE.

J LOVE is who God is

J LOVE is the NATURE and the CHARACTER of God.

J God cannot do otherwise but to LOVE because it is His Nature.

J To stop LOVING is to stop being GOD

Examples:

Water:

J It is in the NATURE of water to flow.

J Even when Jesus and Peter walked on water, the water did not change its nature

J It remained as water, however, its effect was neutralized by the superior wisdom of God nevertheless, its nature did not change.

J SO, God’s nature which is LOVE, cannot change regardless.

Sun-Light

J It is the nature of SUN (LIGHT) to shine its rays.

J If the sun ever peeks out, It will surely release light or beam its rays even if there are showers of rain.

LOVE is who God is!… LOVE is the MOTIVATOR of everything God does REAL Love….

  • Proceeds from God
  • Is God-Centered
  • Has no ‘SELF’ in it
  • Has a correlation with sacrificial giving.
  • It is expressed through giving.
  • Concentrates more on the receiver than the giver
  • Is secured and assured in God
  • Is God Himself

The revelation of the FATHER’S LOVE is the revelation of the NATURE of GOD

2.  THE WORLD

A revelation of the identity of the world as used here

“FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD”

Maybe God’s motivation is love, but love for whom? The chosen? The good, clean, shiny people? Nope. Jesus tells us that God’s love encompasses the world. That’s everyone. That’s chosen people and not-chosen people. That’s devout careful

followers of the law, and flagrant willful sinners. That’s people like me, and people not like me.

  • The Love of God is for all His creation.
  • The ‘World’ as used in the scripture refers to ALL of God’s creation
  • And you are one of God’s creations
  • You Are The Object Of His Love! SO
  • You’ve Got To See Yourself as ‘THE WORLD’ being referred to here.
  • His love for you is not a product of your own doing or effort

ROMANS 5:8 kjv

8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The revelation of ‘The World’ is the revelation of YOU being the OBJECT of His Love!

HE LOVES YOU! He LOVES YOU!! He LOVES YOU!!!

3.  THE GIFT

The revelation of the gift of HIS son

  • See, God’s love isn’t just an ideal. It’s a moving force. It caused God to act.
  • Love moved God to give. This isn’t a picture of a God waiting around for sacrifices and worship. This God is acting because of love. HE GAVE

What gift was God motivated to give?

  • In some amazing, gracious, unfathomable way, God gave His Son–a part of Himself–to all of humanity.
  • The thought in focus here is the sacrifice of Christ.
  • Such is the nature of sin and rebellion against God, that only God could extricate fallen humanity from the morass into which they had fallen; and God could do it only at awful cost in the giving of Jesus as an offering.
  • Only God in the form of man could have done it. The highest angel in heaven would not have sufficed to provide such an offering as Jesus.

1 JOHN 2:2 kjv

2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 JOHN 1:1-2 kjv

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

2(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

The gift of HIS son reveals that JESUS CHRIST is the EXPRESSION of God’s love toward us

“THAT HE GAVE”…..WHY?……. Because He LOVED!

J He GIVES because He LOVES

J He LIFTS because He loves

J He DELIVERS because He LOVES

J He HEALS because He LOVES

J He RESCUES because He LOVES

J He OPENS Doors because He LOVES

J He BLESSES because He LOVES

He Loves You! O How He Loves You!!

THE LOVE OF GOD IS ALL THAT MATTERS John 15:13 (KJV)

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Galatians 2:20 (KJV)

20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

1 John 4:16-19 kjv

16And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

17Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

19We love him, because he first loved us.

EXPRESSIONS OF LOVE

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ESV

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[a]6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

* All the items listed as Fruit of the Spirit in Gal. 5:22-23 are basically attributes of LOVE.

* Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self- Control are ALL derivatives of LOVE

* They are simply the various forms in which LOVE (God) expresses itself.

* The above assertion is buttressed and explained by Paul in 1 Cor. 13:4-8 if you care to read them side by side.

1 John 3:1 NASB

See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason, the world does not know us: because it did not know Him.

AMPC

3 See what [[a]an incredible] quality of love the Father has given (shown, bestowed on) us, that we should [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! AND SO WE ARE! The reason that the world does not know (recognize, acknowledge) us is that it does not know (recognize, acknowledge) Him.

  • HIS LOVE MAKES US A WONDER TO BEHOLD
  • LIVE AND ALWAYS WALK CONSCIOUS OF THE FATHER’S LOVE

LOVE’S HISTORY

Think through the story of God and His people as told in the Bible.

It was because of this love that God created in the first place–because love needs people to love. It was because of this love that God gave us free will and the opportunity for an authentic and meaningful existence. Love does not manipulate.

It was because of this love that God put a plan in place to rescue us from the destructive path we chose with our free will. Love sent Jesus into our world. Love was Jesus’ model. It was His method. It was His message. Love motivated His words of compassion for the hurting and wounded. Love shaped His words of reproof for those blinded by their pride. Love put Jesus in direct conflict with the powers of His time.

Love put Him on the cross and love kept Him there. Because of love He bore the sins of all humanity. Because of love He took upon Himself our shame. Because of love he was separated from the father. Because of love he was crushed physically and spiritually, and died.

It was love that raised Jesus from the dead, showing that only love is more powerful than hate and selfishness, greed and fear. God’s love is more powerful than even death!

In love, Jesus commissioned His followers to create a new kind of community. It would be a community that not only spoke about love, but also that lived it out–in painful and practical ways, never quite getting it right.

Because of God’s love those first followers carried the story of Jesus to the known world and beyond. Because of God’s love that story eventually came to you.

Because of love, God has not manipulated in your circumstances, allowing your choices and consequences to play out, so that you would have the opportunity to mature and grow. Because of love, God is reaching out to you in every way possible, so that you could come to know His heart. Because of love He is present in your pain.

Even at the end of all things when there is final judgment, that too will be motivated by love. Those people who have chosen to receive God’s love will receive it for eternity. Those people who have chosen in the depth of their soul to reject God’s love, will be allowed that choice. This won’t be vindictive punishment. It will happen with tears as God acting in love, allows them to have what they finally desire, because in the grip of their own prideful self- love, they cannot be loved by another, or love another back.

It is not that God can love. It is that God is love.

There has only ever been one motivation in the heart of God. LOVE!

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