THE GOSPEL
JOHN 3:16
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.
FEBRUARY 17, 2008 AM
SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT, YEAR A
BLYTHEVILLE, AR CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE
INTRO. As with many innovations, the originator of 3M’s sticky yellow Post-its didn’t know what he had - at first. Researcher Spence Silver was curious about what would happen if he mixed an unusual amount of monomer into a polymer-based adhesive he was working on. The result was an adhesive that would “tack” one piece of paper to another and even restick, without leaving any residue on the second piece of paper. The company had no use for the new adhesive until 3M chemist Arthur Fry began having problems in the choir loft. The slips of paper he used to mark pages in his hymnal often fluttered to the floor, leaving him frantically searching for his place. Then he remembered Silver’s adhesive. Fry’s better bookmark soon metamorphosed into the handy Post-its that have become a fixture in offices throughout the country (Discipleship Journal, Issue #48, p. 28; posted on bible.org). It just took a while for the folks at 3M to get it! Many times, even adults don’t seem to get the gospel, to understand what it is for. We get busy with life, with rushing from here to there, to do this and that. You know people like that - maybe you are a person like that! I would like to use John 3:16, a verse familiar to many of us, to remind us what life is all about.
I. GOD LOVES US. In our heads, we know this, but do we know it in our hearts? Back when Touched by an Angel was a show that ran on CBS, this is what it did such a great job of telling people - God loves us. Many times, when the star of the week realized that God loved him or her, it would move them to tears, and more than once, it moved me to tears as well! God loves us.
Every year the youngest children in the Trinity Lutheran preschool in Crown Point, Indiana, steal the show at their end-of-the-year program. One year they did the usual waves to parents, making faces and tugging at their clothes. The highlight came when 11 children - none of whom could yet read - proudly held up brightly colored 3-foot-high letters that spelled: DOG LOVES YOU (Richard A. Vurva, Merrillville, Indiana, on bible.org). How come so many find it easier to believe that their spouse, kids or even their dog loves them that the fact that God loves them? Get over it! God loves you! There is nothing you can do to make God love you less, and there is nothing you can do to make God love you more! I don’t say that to encourage you to sin or to not do good, but that’s the truth. GOD LOVES US.
II. WE MESSED UP. Sad to say, in spite of all the good God has done to us, we messed up. We sinned. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and none of us can say we have not. You may have gone to church as long as you can remember, lived a clean life, and be looked up to by friends and family, but if you do not have God, you are lost. Sin will mess us up every time. I may have mentioned before the incident in the life of Malcolm Muggeridge, famous Christian writer from England, as described by Ravi Zacharias:
One of the most powerful stories I have ever heard on the nature of the human heart is told by Malcolm Muggeridge. Working as a journalist in India, he left his residence one evening to go to a nearby river for a swim. As he entered the water, across the river he saw an Indian woman from the nearby village who had come to have her bath. Muggeridge impulsively felt the allurement of the moment, and temptation stormed into his mind. He had lived with this kind of struggle for years but had somehow fought it off in honor of his commitment to his wife, Kitty. On this occasion, however, he wondered if he could cross the line of marital fidelity. He struggled just for a moment and then swam furiously toward the woman, literally trying to outdistance his conscience. His mind fed him the fantasy that stolen waters would be sweet, and he swam the harder for it. Now he was just two or three feet away from her, and as he emerged from the water, any emotion that may have gripped him paled into insignificance when compared with the devastation that shattered him as he looked at her.
“She was old and hideous...and her skin was wrinkled and, worst of all, she was a leper....This creature grinned at me, showing a toothless mask.” The experience left Muggeridge trembling and muttering under his breath, “What a dirty lecherous woman!” But then the rude shock of it dawned upon him - it was not the woman who was lecherous; it was his own heart (Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God, (Word, Dallas: 1994), pp. 136-137, at bible.org).
Sin hits us different ways, but it hits us all. WE MESSED UP.
III. GOD FIXED THINGS. I think we often forget just how much we have wrecked things in life and just how much God has fixed things! We were totally lost without God, with no hope of salvation, but as John 3:16 tells us, he gave Jesus to fix things. When I was in high school, there was two twin brothers who were one year ahead of me in school. They turned 16, they got their licenses, and then a nice used sports car appeared in their driveway, paid for, at least in part, by dear old dad. Not too much time passed before they were in an accident in their sports car. Dear old dad had the car towed back home, where it sat in the driveway, front and center, where we could see it the next day of school as the bus pulled up and picked up the two shame-faced brothers. Dad let it set there a few weeks, too, before he had it fixed. I am sure the brothers never forgot that car! How did you wreck your life? How did I wreck mine? We could all tell horror stories of one kind or another, but what we have to remember is that God can fix the brokenness, he can pick up the pieces, he can make us whole again! And when God fixes things, they stay fixed. The plan of salvation was put into place 2,000 years ago on Calvary, and it is still good today. GOD FIXED THINGS.
IV. WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT? Maybe you have done something about it. We have to admit that we stand before God as sinners who need him.
Prussian king Frederick the Great was once touring a Berlin prison. The prisoners fell on their knees before him to proclaim their innocence - except for one man, who remained silent. Frederick called to him, “Why are you here?”
“Armed robbery, Your Majesty,” was the reply. “And are you guilty?”
“Yes indeed, Your Majesty, I deserve my punishment.”
Frederick then summoned the jailer and ordered him, “Release this guilty wretch at once. I will not have him kept in this prison where he will corrupt all the fine innocent people who occupy it” (Today in the Word, December 4, 1992, on bible.org). We must see our need for Jesus, admit to him that we have sinned, and ask him to save us from our sins. Are you willing to do that? Have you done that? Or would you rather stay in your sin?
Thomas Costain’s history, The Three Edwards, described the life of Raynald III, a fourteenth-century duke in what is now Belgium. Grossly overweight, Raynald was commonly called by his Latin nickname, Crassus, which means “fat.” After a violent quarrel, Raynald’s younger brother Edward led a successful revolt against him. Edward captured Raynald but did not kill him. Instead, he built a room around Raynald in the Nieuwkerk castle and promised him he could regain his title and property as soon as he was able to leave the room. This would not have been difficult for most people since the room had several windows and a door of near-normal size, and none was locked or barred. The problem was Raynald’s size. To regain his freedom, he needed to lose weight. But Edward knew his older brother, and each day he sent a variety of delicious foods. Instead of dieting his way out of prison, Raynald grew fatter. When Duke Edward was accused of cruelty, he had a ready answer: “My brother is not a prisoner. He may leave when he so wills.”
Raynald stayed in that room for ten years and wasn’t released until after Edward died in battle. By then his health was so ruined he died within a year, a prisoner of his own appetite (Dave Wilkinson, quoted in Not Even a Hint by Josh Harris, on bible.org). Have you done something about your sin? God has taken care of it from his side. There are no barriers between you and him, except those that you have not taken down. If you are not a servant of God, if you are not his son or daughter, it is because of something that you are holding onto and have not let God take care of. God has doen everything he can about your need for salvation, WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
CON. “What’s wrong with the world?” a newspaper editorial once asked. G. K. Chesterton wrote in reply, “I am” (on bible.org). Isn’t that the truth? Again, as Paul said, we have all fallen short of God’s glory. I can’t blame my past, society, bad friends, bad experiences or anything else if I don’t serve God. I can only blame ME. REPEAT JOHN 3:16. Is he your Savior and Friend today? If not, why not? Praise God, he can be!
