John 3:16 & Our Calling

The Love of God

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17

God

Who is God?

—evolution or creation . . . whether God created the universe by divine fiat, willing by His word to make it about 10,000 years ago, or whether He placed within the initial conditions of the formation of the universe all of the elements required to lead inevitably to our formation on this small, beautiful planet,

Who cares?

Francis Collins

Current head of the National Institutes of Health

Former head of the Human Genome Project

“When you have for the first time in front of you this 3.1 billion–letter instruction book that conveys all kinds of information and all kinds of mystery about humankind, you can’t survey that going through page after page without a sense of awe. I can’t help but look at those pages and have a vague sense that this is giving me a glimpse of God’s mind.” -the Language of God

Francis Collins peers at the infinitesimal and sees God.

What about the infinite?

Estimates now are that there are roughly 2,000,000,000,000 (that’s two trillion) galaxies

10,000,000-1,000,000,000,000 stars each

About 92 billion light-years in diameter

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/universe-has-10-times-more-galaxies-than-researchers-thought/

He also made the stars. Genesis 1:16b

Whether He made all things in a literal six days ex-nihilo, instantaneously or

Used pictorial language to explain to a pre-literate generation three-thousand years ago how He created things through time and evolution

He is unimaginably big and intelligent, powerful and wise

So this is the God that loves us so much He sent His Son.

Something like a man becoming an ant.

More like something the size of our galaxy becoming an ant.

. . . So loved . . .

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8

. . . The world . . .

The Roman Empire – a cruel, oppressive power, using its massive military to force its purposes on nations.

Religious leadership – intent on continuing in their positions of power, more concerned about public opinion than truth.

Jesus’ Disciples – unable to process Jesus’ beauty and power, unwilling to believe, hearts, eyes, and ears all hardened.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. John 1:10-11

. . . That He gave . . .

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Is 53:3

We are, in this season, at the midpoint between Christmas and Easter.

The humility of His birth (Christmas) is directly connected to the infamy of His death (Easter).

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature?? God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

. . . That He gave . . .

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature? of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

Philippians 2:5-8

Karl Barth

Was one of the greatest scholars of the 20th Century. He was once asked, “Sir, what is the most profound truth you’ve ever learned?” He paused a moment, and thought, then said, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”.

See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Isaac Watts

Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above,

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.

God loves us so much He have His Only Begotten Son.

That’s not the end of the story.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35