How Should We Respond To God's Amazing Love? Series

How Should We Respond to God's Amazing Love?

The Gospel of John

John 15:9-16

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared March 13, 2020)

BACKGROUND:

*For many weeks now, we have been studying the night before Jesus died on the cross for our sins. That's because God's Word puts a great emphasis on this night, all the way from John 13 to John 18:27.

*In tonight's Scripture, Christ and His disciples have left the upper room where Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, and they are walking on the road to the Garden of Gethsemane. In these moments on the road, Jesus highlighted some of the wonderful things God's love can do in our lives. But Jesus also showed us how we should respond to His gracious love. Please keep this in mind as we read John 15:9-16.

MESSAGE:

*We all respond to different things hundreds of times a day. For most people, it starts with the alarm clock every morning. Then we respond to text messages, phone calls, email and all kinds of conversation.

*We respond to heat and cold. We respond to hunger and pain. We respond to music and news. We respond to humor, anger, love, respect and fear. We respond to victories, disappointments and setbacks.

*But how we respond makes a big difference. Chuck Swindoll once said, "I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% of how I react to it." (1)

*How we respond makes a big difference, and this is especially true when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing is more important than how we respond to the love of Jesus Christ. And tonight's Scripture shows us how the Lord wants us to respond to His love.

1. FIRST: GOD WANTS US TO APPRECIATE HIS LOVE.

*There should be no doubt that God loves every single one of us. John 3:16 is one of the most well-known and loved verses in the whole Bible. There Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

*John 3:16 is the heart of the Gospel straight from the heart of God. "For God so loved the world." This word "world" is found 79 times in the Gospel of John. And "this word is not talking about the physical world or the sinful world system. It's talking about the world's people.

*Walter Wilson said: 'No one in all the world could possibly love everyone in the world. In fact, most people find it hard to love all their relatives...' But in spite of our faults, God's love is so great that it's possible for Him to love every person in the whole world!

*God loves Americans, but He also loves Russians, Chinese, Arabs, Pakistanis the British, Japanese, Israelis, everyone." (2)

*You have probably heard this truth in the song our daughter Katie and I used to sing in the car every day when she only 4. The tune was first written as a marching song during the Civil War. The original words were "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching."

*But after the war, Claire Woolston wrote new words that turned that tune into one of the all-time favorite Christian songs for children:

"Jesus loves the little children,

ALL the children of the world.

Red and yellow, black and white,

They are precious in His sight.

Jesus loves the little children of the world." (3)

*Jesus loves the little children and all the big children too! God so loved the world! That means God loves the oldest to the youngest! And He didn't start loving those little babies when they were born. No. God loved them, as my daddy used to say, "when they were just a twinkle in their mother's eye."

*God loves the best Christian you have ever known. But He also loves the worst sinner you have ever known. God so loved the world! That's why one of the most astounding truths in God's Word is found in Romans 5:6. There God tells us that "when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

*Christ died for the ungodly! Christ died for the worst of the worst: Murderers, thieves, drug addicts, and every other sin we could possibly think of. Christ died for the ungodly. He did that because "God so loved the world." And joy of joys, this means God loves us too! That's great Church, because we needed God's merciful love as much as the worst sinner who has ever lived.

*Alan Perkins explained that this is "because God is completely holy, and his standard is perfect righteousness. It doesn't matter if you're a little better than someone else, or even a lot better than someone else. You're still guilty of sin. And you are still under God's wrath without Jesus."