Getting Great Through God’s Great Love Series

I once read that the printing press was one of the greatest inventions ever. Up until that time, all books were painstakingly printed by hand - which made books very rare and very hard to find. But the Printing press changed all of that. Information was suddenly made available to 1000s of people. And (pause) one of the most significant accomplishments of the printing press was that it allowed people to have their own copies of Scripture.

That was a major focus of Martin Luther. He employed numerous print shops in Germany to create Bibles in the language of common men so that people could read God’s Word for themselves.

The story is told of one of the print shops that Luther used for that very purpose. During one of the printings, one of the Bibles had been ripped and a scrap of paper from that Bible ended up on the shop floor where it was found by the daughter of the owner. And on that scrap of paper… were these words, “For God so loved that He gave...” The rest of the verse was missing, but that simple phrase moved her, and the rest of the day she went around with a smile on her face. Her mother noticed … and asked what had made her so happy? The girl pulled the crumpled paper from her pocket and showed it to her mother. The mother read it and asked, "What did He give?" And the girl replied “I don’t know, but if God loved us enough to give us anything He must love us deeply.”

John 3:16 is perhaps one of the most beloved verses of the Bible. You’ll see it displayed on billboards, on bumper stickers, on paintings and statues. And you’ll see it a lot at sporting events (my apologies to those who believe Soccer is the only real game of “football”). But we Americans had a football player who had this verse printed beneath his eyes.

(PAUSE) “For God so loved the world that gave His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Preachers love that verse. In fact, on sermoncentral there are 1000s of sermons (where I post all of my sermons) dedicated to that one verse alone. There’s even one preacher who claimed that he could preach every Sunday for the rest of his life simply on John 3:16. But what’s so special about that verse? Why should so many people love that one verse in Scripture.

Well, there’s several reasons. 1st – it’s simple. Even the smallest child can understand the idea that God loves them. There’s a favorite Christian song that’s been translated into numerous language that we’re going to sing together now. I’ll lead you in singing the first verse… and then our Spanish translator will lead the Hispanic audience in singing that verse… and then our Creole translator will lead the folks from Haiti in that verse. THEN we’ll sing the chorus together. (This is our Unity Sunday where those 3 languages gather to worship God together)

1ST VERSE: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but He is strong” (then Spanish/ then Creole) ALL TOGETHER ON CHORUS: Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so!” (Chorus is NOT sung until AFTER the 1st verse is sung in each language)

That song has been so popular that it’s translated into several languages, including Spanish and Creole. And that simple song illustrates the power of ONE simple idea: “Jesus loves me!” That’s what that young girl in the print shop understood when she said “If God loves us enough to give us anything He must love us deeply.” That’s such a simple message that it speaks to everyone in every language: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son…” And it’s that message that gives us our UNITY as believers.

It doesn’t matter where we were born, what language we speak, or what we look like, or whether we’re male or female. WE ARE ALL ONE IN CHRIST

And it doesn’t matter what we’ve done with our lives before we became Christians. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that WHOSOEVER believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

There are people who struggle with that “whosoever” thing. There are people who believe that only “good people”, the only righteous people who are going to make it into heaven. And, of course, these folks think they are righteous enough to make it.

Jesus told a parable about a man like that. (Luke 18:9-14) There were 2 men that came to the temple to pray. One man was a sinner (tax collector)… the other was a Pharisee. And the Pharisee listed why HE was righteous/good man: ‘I fast twice a week; I give You a 10th of all that I get… and I’m not like THAT man over there. But THAT MAN (the sinful man) stood before God and beat on his breast and he said ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ And Jesus said “I tell you, that sinful man went home justified, because HE wasn’t like that Pharisee.