Love's Real, Feel It! Series

Love’s Real, FEEL it!

John 3:16-21

Introduction

Ag: video illustration from Sermon Central: (http://www.sermoncentral.com/church-media-preaching-sermons/sermon-video-illustrations/this-is-love-4811-detail.asp)

This Is Love I can think of no greater love than the love of God demonstrated in Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. Truly twitter was right when it said, “Love’s eternal, FEEL it!”

TS: There are many verses about God’s love in the Bible.

Our text this morning, contains what is likely the best known verse not just about love, but its address pops up everywhere.

John 3:16 signs appear all the time. (PowerPoint display some). But what does it mean?

Many know the sign “John 3:16” but have never read the verse. Some have read the verse, yet still don’t know what it all means.

The Gideons related a testimony of one many who saw a sign during a football game and looked it up. Through this verse, He came to know the Savior. He understood and applied this passage to his life.

John 3 records an encounter with a Pharisee, Nicodemus, and Jesus.

Nidodemus came to Jesus by night and conferred with Him.

Jesus told Nicodemus that unless he was born again, he couldn’t enter the Kingdom of God.

Nicodemus then asked how that could happen and Jesus explained it in our text.

Rs: We need to know the Love of God these verses describe. We need to not just see it and read it. We need to apply it to our lives as well.

Read John 3:14-21

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[b] 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. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Let us begin today by examining…

God’s Love

John 3:16 begins this way, “For God so loved the world….”

It all begins with God. God loved us.

God looked upon all mankind and said, “I love you.”

This love is an unconditional love based solely upon His nature and choice.

John is 1 John 4:8 says, “8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

Love is part of His nature.

It is who He is. In Him, we find the ultimate example of love.

His love for us moved Him to an unprecedented action, “16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son….”

IL: “A grandfather found his grandson, jumping up and down in his playpen, crying at the top of his voice. When Johnnie saw his grandfather, he reached up his little chubby hands and said, “Out, Gramp, out.”

It was only natural for Grandfather to reach down to lift the little fellow out of his predicament; but as he did, the mother of the child stepped up and said, “No, Johnnie, you are being punished, so you must stay in.”

The grandfather was at a loss to know what to do. The child’s tears and chubby hands reached deep into his heart, but the mother’s firmness in correcting her son for misbehavior must not be lightly taken. Here was a problem of love versus law, but love found a way. The grandfather could not take the youngster out of the playpen, so he crawled in with him.—By Fred W. Parsons, These Times, March 1969.

That is what God did for us when He sent His Son to earth.

God the Son took on flesh, left heaven for earth, and became a man.

He grew through the normal stages of human development like us

helplessness of being an infant.

struggles of learning to walk and talk as a toddler.

joyous years of being a child.

navigated through the dangerous waters of being an adolescent.

grew to become an adult.

In love, He got in the playpen with us and went through what we go through. He faced every temptation just as we do, but chose not to sin.