John 3:16 Perish Or Eternal Life (Full Text) Series

Note: A lot comes from Max Lucado's book John 3:16 A message of hope. I wanted to post this for the resource.

Title: Perish or Everlasting life

Theme: The Contrast of Heaven and Hell

Text: John 3:12-16

Opening Text

Joh 3:12-16 "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? (13) "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. (14) "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, (15) "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (16) "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Introduction

Joh 3:16 "For God (the creator of all the universe) so loved (was not absent from this world, but had compassion for this world, common trait of Christ) the world (more than a physical place but a sinful people Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.) that He gave (He “God” took action) His only begotten Son (the greatest sacrifice that God could have given, His true love), that whoever (this is any person, not limited to) believes (this is bigger than a saying but it is our action) in Him (“no other name written in heaven whereby man can be saved”

Act 4:10-12 "let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. (11) "This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' (12) "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Two Contrasts

should not perish but have everlasting life.

Perish

10 HELL’S SUPREME SURPRISE

“. . . whoever believes in him shall not perish . . .”

The hero of heaven is God. Angels don’t worship mansions or glittering avenues. Neither gates nor jewels prompt the hosts to sing . . . God does. His majesty stirs the pen of heaven’s poets and the awe of her citizens.

They enjoy an eternity-long answer to David’s prayer: “One thing I ask of the LORD . . . to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD” (Ps. 27:4). What else warrants a look? Inhabitants of heaven for-ever marvel at the sins God forgives, the promises he keeps, the plan he executes. He’s not the grand marshal of the parade; he is the parade. He’s not the main event; he’s the only event. His Broadway features a single stage and star: himself. He hosts the only production and invites every living soul to attend.

He, at this very moment, issues invitations by the millions. He whispers through the kindness of a grandparent, shouts through the tempest of a tsunami. Through the funeral he cautions, “Life is fragile.” Through a sickness he reminds, “Days are numbered.” God may speak through nature or nurture, majesty or mishap. But through all and to all he invites: “Come, enjoy me forever.”

Yet many people have no desire to do so. They don’t want anything to do with God. He speaks; they cover their ears. He commands; they scoff. They don’t want him telling them how to live. They mock what he says about marriage, money, sex, or the value of human life. They regard his son as a joke and the cross as utter folly.1 They spend their lives telling God to leave them alone. And at the moment of their final breath, he honors their request: “Get away from me, you who do evil. I never knew you” (Matt. 7:23 NCV). This verse escorts us to the most somber of Christian realities: hell.

No topic stirs greater resistance. Who wants to think about eternal punishment? We prefer to casualize the issue, making jokes about its residents or turning the noun into a flippant adjective.

Some prefer to sanitize the subject, dismissing it as a moral impossibility.

“I do not myself feel that any person,” defied atheist Bertrand Russell, “who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.”2 Or, as is more commonly believed, “A loving God would not send people to hell.” Religious leaders increasingly agree. Martin Marty, a church historian at the University of Chicago Divinity School, canvassed one hundred years of some scholarly journals for entries on hell. He didn’t find one. “Hell,” he observed, “disappeared and no one noticed.”3