INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE 1
• It is so good to be able to come together to CELEBRATE this WONDERFUL holiday!
• Many people will have many questions as to why we even have this holiday; they wonder why God would send His Son to die on a cross for mankind.
• Many are confused over why the “CREATOR” would allow such a thing to take place.
• Over the past few weeks we have been looking at a passage that has been called the Rosetta Stone of the Bible.
• It is a simple passage that once you understand it, many questions you have concerning God will be answered.
• Let us look at this wonderful passage together!
• SLIDE #2
• From this verse we have thus far learned that God loves and His for us love led Him to give us His Son. We are called to respond by believing in Him so that we can live or as it is put, have eternal life!
• We learn from John 3:16 that ALL God has done, He has done out of LOVE. God created you and He loves you, He sent His Son for you because He LOVES you!
• Now the question is WHO can have eternal life, WHO can believe?
• There is one word in this passage that should bring great JOY and HOPE to all!
• That word is WHOEVER!
• Jesus could have narrowed the scope of who could be saved and who God loves, but:
• Notice that God does not say that certain people of certain races from certain countries with a certain social status can have eternal life, the verse says WHOEVER!
• The GREAT news is that all of us are WHO EVER!
• God used the all inclusive word WHOEVER in several passages in the bible.
• SLIDE #3
• Matthew 10:39 ( ESV ) Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
• SLIDE #4
• Mark 3:35 ( ESV ) Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
• SLIDE #5
• Mark 16:16 ( ESV ) Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
• SLIDE #6
• John 4:14 ( ESV ) but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
• Titus 2:11 assures us that “the grace of God . . . has appeared to all men.” Paul contends that Jesus Christ sacrificed himself “to win freedom for all mankind” (1 Tim. 2:6 NEB). Peter affirms that “it is not his [God’s] will for any to be lost, but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9 NEB). God’s gospel has a “whoever” policy. In his policy: (Max Lucado, 3:16 The Numbers of Hope)
• SLIDE #7
SERMON
I. Whoever means however.
• We need to realize that God’s whoever policy means that God will take us however we are. God wants you!
• I wonder how many people feel for whatever reason that God would not accept them? Most of us have done things in life that makes us feel unworthy of God’s love; some folks have had things done to them that makes them feel unworthy of God’s acceptance.
• It does not matter how you are because God will take you however you are. The wonderful thing about God is He will help you to be what you can be; He will help you to fulfill who you are in Him.
• Here is a thought for those who think they have done too many bad things to be forgiven.
• SLIDE #8
• Luke 23:34 ( ESV ) And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
• If you do know what is happing here, Jesus had been falsely accused, beat half to death and then while He is dying on the cross, Jesus asks God to forgive those who did it to Him as they are getting ready to gamble for His clothing.
• Jesus was willing to forgive those who crucified Him, do you think He can forgive you.
• Last week we looked at the story of the rich man and Lazarus. If you were to look at these two men, I wonder how many of us would think that God was ready to take the rich man with Him instead of Lazarus.
• I wonder how Lazarus felt during his life about his future prospects with God.
• Listen to what happened to him during his life compared to the rich man.
• SLIDE #9
• Luke 16:19-21 ( ESV ) “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
• Max Lucado states concerning these two men: The two men indwell opposite sides of the city tracks. The rich man lives in posh luxury and wears the finest clothing. The language suggests he uses fabric worth its weight in gold.2 He eats exotic food, enjoys a spacious house with botanical gardens. He’s the New Testament version of a Monaco billionaire.
• Lazarus is a homeless street sleeper. Dogs lick the sores that cavern his skin. He languishes outside the mansion, hoping for scraps. Infected. Rejected. No possessions. No family. An exception to God’s “whoever” policy, right?
• WRONG!
• Later in the chapter we see that God had not forgotten this forgettable man named Lazarus.
• DO not wait until you “CLEAN UP” your act before you come to Jesus, there is no need. God loves you and you are not an exception to His WHOEVER POLICY!
• God takes you however he finds you. No need to clean up or climb up. Just look up. God’s “whoever” policy has a “however” benefit.
• It also features a “whenever” clause.
• SLIDE #10
II. Whoever means whenever.
• Whenever you feel God working on you, whenever you feel Him call out to you, whenever you are ready to surrender your life to Jesus, you can do it.
• God welcomes your response whenever, there is not some certain time of the day or certain time of your life you need to wait for. He wants you whenever you are ready! He is ready for your response at any moment.
• While Jesus was dying on the cross, He was still accepting people into His kingdom.
• SLIDE #11
• Luke 23:39-43 ( ESV ) One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
• It seems to me that Jesus was a little busy dying on cross for the sins of mankind, yet even as He was dying to save us, He was ready to save!
• There are not a lot of things in life that you can use whenever you want. There have been times that I have had coupons from places that expired. It is embarrassing to go to a store and present a coupon that is expired.
• With God’s whoever policy as long as you are still alive or the Lord has not yet returned, you can accept Him as your lord and savior!
• There is rejoicing in heaven when one comes to Jesus!
• SLIDE #12
• Luke 15:7 ( ESV ) Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
• Jesus tells another story in Matthew 20. It is a story about a landowner who needs helps. The landowner went out early in the morning and hired some workers and they agreed on a wage of a denarius (a normal day’s wage).
• About 9 a.m. the landowner saw some guys who needed work and he hired some more at noon, 3 p.m. and an hour before quitting time he hired some more.
• Now you would expect the ones who were hired later to get a pro-rated salary wouldn’t you?
• Those at the end only worked an hour.
• Look at what happened.
• SLIDE 13
• Matthew 20:8-9 ( ESV ) And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.
• Now imagine if you had been one of the early morning hires, you had to think JACKPOT!
• SLIDE #14
• Matthew 20:10-11 ( ESV ) Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house,
• The point for us is that God will take us whenever.
• You do not have to be one of the first 100 callers to accept Jesus.
• Whoever also means WHEREVER!
• SLIDE #15
III. Whoever means wherever.
• God wants you!
• As you ponder why Jesus went to the cross, remember He did it because He loves you and wants you.
• It does not matter where you are in life, He wants you!
• You are never too far from home, no matter what road you have traveled and no matter how far you have traveled.
• There was a young man who may have thought he had gone too far from home.
• He got the itch to leave home; he went to his father and asked his father to give him his inheritance. The father did and the young son left home to live the life.
• SLIDE #16
• Look at what the bible says about him
• Luke 15:13 ( ESV ) Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.
• Eventually the young man’s reckless living caught up with him, he ran out of money, I am sure the friends the money bought him ran out. He was is terrible shape. The young man was hungry, with no money.
• He had a job working with the pigs; he was so hungry that the pig slop looked good to him.
• Now you would think the father would be hurt and angry over what the younger son did. You would think that the younger son burned his bridges when he left.
• You would think we had done the same thing when we traveled away from God.
• The young man finally figured that he would be better treated if he were a servant in his father’s home than what he was doing.
• He decided to go home, not as a son, but as a servant. He thought sonship was over for him.
• Something neat happened, as the son was trudging home thinking about how dumb he was and how foolish he was with his life the father see him.
• The father saw him and rushed out to hug and kiss his lost son. Then in verses 23-24 we find the following:
• SLIDE #17
• Luke 15:23-24 ( ESV ) And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
• You can never go too far from home. God will accept whoever will receive Him!
CONCLUSION
• During Easter many people come home, to matter how far the distance, many people travel home.
• How far from God have you traveled? You can never travel to far from Him to come back to Him.
• Just as the father was saving the lost son a place at the table, He’s saving yours too. If heaven’s banquet table has nameplates, one bears your name.
• Jesus went to the cross so you could come home. Jesus rose on the third day, the resurrection we celebrate today so He could defeat death for us!
• WHOEVER- that includes everyone who wants to be with Him!
