Introduction:
A. We return today to one of the best known passages in all the Bible – John 3:16.
1. 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. (Jn. 3:16)
2. We have looked at the fact that God is and that God loves.
3. We have looked at the fact that God loves so much that He would give us the greatest and most needed gift – His one and only Son.
4. Last week we talked about our need as sinners and about how Jesus died in our place and was punished for our sins.
B. Today we want to talk about our response to such a great gift.
1. To whom is this great gift of God offered?
2. How does a person receive the gift of God’s one and only Son?
3. The answer to those two questions is found in two important words from John 3:16 – the words are “whoever believes.”
I. WHOEVER
A. The word “Whoever” unrolls the “welcome mat” of heaven to all humanity.
1. “Whoever” invites the whole world to the heavenly party.
B. Jesus could have so easily narrowed the scope by changing the “whoever” into “whatever.”
1. He could have said, “Whatever Jew…” Or “Whatever woman…” Or “Whatever American…”
2. Or “Whatever white or black, educated or wealthy, beautiful or talented…”
3. But he didn’t. The pronoun he used is wonderfully indefinite.
4. After all, who isn’t a whoever?
C. The word “whoever” makes it clear that God’s invitation is for everyone.
1. Anyone and everyone is invited.
2. The word “whoever” cuts across racial fences and social classes.
3. The word “whoever” bypasses gender boarders and geographical boarders.
4. God extends his love and grace to everyone.
D. Let’s notice that this is not the first time Jesus has employed the word “whoever.”
1. Jesus said: “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.” (Mt. 10:32)
2. Jesus said: “Whoever find his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt. 10:39)
3. Jesus said: “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mk. 3:35)
4. Jesus said: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mk. 16:16)
5. Jesus said: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life.” (Jn. 3:36)
6. Jesus said: “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.” (Jn. 4:14)
7. Jesus said: “Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” (Rev. 22:17)
E. There is no doubt about it, God’s gospel has a “whoever” policy.
1. Paul assured Titus that “the grace of God…has appeared to all men.” (Tit. 2:11)
2. Peter affirms that “it is not his [God’s] will for any to be lost, but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 NEB)
F. God’s “whoever” policy also means “however.”
1. I wonder how many people feel for whatever reason that “God would not accept them.
2. Most of us have done things in life that make us feel unworthy of God’s love.
3. Some of us have had things done to us that make us feel unworthy of God’s acceptance.
4. The downturns of life can create such a sad state of affairs that we wonder if God still wants us.
5. Surely Lazarus the beggar must have wondered.
6. In Luke 16, Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus.
a. The two men in the story were from opposite sides of the tracks.
b. The rich man lived in posh luxury and wore the finest clothes. He ate exotic food and loved in a spacious mansion.
c. Lazarus was a homeless street sleeper. Dogs licked his sores. All he hoped for were the scraps of food from the rich man’s table.
7. Surely Lazarus felt like he was an exception to God’s “whoever” policy, right? Wrong.
8. God had not forgotten this forgettable man named Larzarus.
9. Upon Lazarus’ death, he was taken to Abraham’s side and was well taken care of.
10. God’s “whoever” policy includes everyone “however” their lives have gone.
11. Whoever – however – no status is too low.
G. God’s “whoever” policy also means “whenever.”
1. Whenever you feel God working on you. Whenever you are ready to surrender your life to Jesus, that’s the time to do it.
2. God welcomes our response whenever – there is not some certain time of the day or certain time of the year, or certain time of life.
3. While Jesus was dying on the cross between the two thieves, something amazing happened.
a. Both of the thieves began that day as criminals with hard and unbelieving hearts.
b. Both of them ridiculed Jesus.
c. But before the day was over, one of them had a change of heart.
4. One of the thieves changed his mind about Jesus and decided he wanted to be right with God.
a. Did Jesus say, “Sorry pal, you’re too bad or you’re too late!”?
b. No, Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Lk. 23:43)
5. God’s “whoever whenever” policy means that as long as we are still alive and sincerely turn to the Lord, we can be saved.
6. I certainly wouldn’t encourage anyone to wait until the last minute, because none of us know when that moment will be.
7. But I would certainly encourage anyone to turn to the Lord, even at the last minute.
8. Of course, I believe that the sooner we get started living in the love and grace of God the better.
9. There is no better and satisfying life we can live than to walk with God and experience abundant life.
10. Whoever – whenever – no hour is too late.
H. God’s “whoever” policy also means “wherever.”
1. Wherever we are, we’re not too far to come home to God.
2. Jesus’ story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 makes that principle very clear.
a. The young man demanded his inheritance even before his father’s death.
b. His father gave it to the boy and off he went and wasted the money in sinful living.
c. Before long the money ran out and so did his luck and his friends.
d. The boy slid from “high hog at the trough” to “low pig in the mud.”
e. Literally, he found employment feeding pigs, which was not the recommended career path for a Jewish boy.
f. He was so hungry, he considered eating the slop he was feeding the pigs.
g. But rather than swallow the pods, he swallowed his pride and began his long walk homeward, rehearsing his repentance speech with each step.
h. Turns out he didn’t need the speech.
i. Verse 20 says: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
3. It didn’t matter how far the son had strayed, his father wanted him home – that’s how God feels.
a. The son repented and returned and the father threw him a party.
4. Whoever – wherever – no place is too far.
I. So we learn that “whoever” is God’s wonderful word of welcome.
1. Whoever…however…whenever…wherever.
2. No status is too low. No hour is too late. No place is too far.
3. Whoever is God’s open invitation to everyone…including you and me.
4. The second word we are looking at today is just as important as the first, because the second qualifies the first.
II. BELIEVES
A. 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. (John 3:16)
1. So we learn from this word that although everyone is invited, not everyone responds.
2. God’s gift of Jesus was given for everyone, but not everyone welcomes it and receives it.
3. God loves, God gives, and then we must believe.
4. Look at this cartoon – I got a chuckle from it – “No atheists in heaven”…”I don’t believe it”…we better believe it. Faith is mandatory.
B. But we must not just believe anything, we must believe in HIM – in Jesus.
1. Do you remember the words from our Scripture reading today: 28Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” 29Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:28-29
2. John 1:12 says: Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
3. The apostle Peter declared to the people in Acts 4: Salvation is found in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
4. Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn. 14:6)
C. Jesus is the only way to God. He is the only path. All paths and all persons do not lead to heaven.
1. Jesus is the path. He is the gift. We must believe in Him.
2. But what does it mean to believe in Jesus?
3. Whoever believes…what does it mean to put our faith in Jesus?
D. It must mean more then just believing that He exists.
1. Believing in Jesus must mean more than just thinking or feeling something about Jesus.
2. James 2:19 says: You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.
3. While Jesus was on the earth, the demons knew who He was, but that didn’t cause them to put their faith in Christ and turn to Christ in obedience.
E. The kind of faith that saves is a faith that causes someone to do something.
1. It causes us to trust God with our lives.
2. It causes us to follow and obey the Lord.
3. Later in that chapter in James we read from a minute ago, James said: “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (Jm. 2:26)
F. Look with me at the two verses just before our passage in John 3:16.
1. 14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (Jn. 3:14-15)
2. This sentence, spoken to Nicodemus, would have helped Nicodemus understand how salvation was to come through trusting in Jesus.
3. Immediately, Nicodemus’ mind went back to those wandering Israelites who were grumbling against Moses, and against God. (Numbers 21)
a. They had not trusted that God could take them into the promised land, so God forced them to wander in the desert for 40 years while the older folks died off.
b. They said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert?” (21:5)
1. Same complaint, seventeenth verse. They had had it so good back in Egypt as slaves!
c. They said, “We detest this miserable food!” (21:5)
1. They’d had all the manna burgers and manna casseroles and manna peanut butter sandwiches they could stomach.
2. And God had had all the complaining he could take.
d. The Bible says: Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. (vs. 6)
1. Horror-movie directors long to depict such scenes.
2. Slithering vipers creeping out of holes and out from under rocks, people being bitten and dying. Corpses everywhere!
e. Quickly the people recognized their fault and ran to Moses for help.
f. Moses turned to the Lord. The Bible says: 8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. (Num. 21:8-9)
4. It was such a silly remedy – the snake-bitten people only had to turn and look at the special pole and they were healed.
a. Imagine some of them saying, “What, I’m not going to look at some silly pole. How’s that going to help me?”
b. The Bible says that they believed what the Lord told Moses, and they looked to the pole and lived.
5. Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus that sinners will likewise find their spiritual healing by looking to Christ who was lifted up on the cross.
a. We must put our trust in Jesus – that trust is best expressed by obedience.
G. I think the example of a man named Naaman is a good one.
1. Naaman was a great soldier for the King of Aram.
2. Sadly, Naaman had leprosy.
3. Fortunately, he had a Jewish servant girl who told him about the prophet Elisha.
4. Naaman went to Elisha to be healed, but then was very frustrated by what took place.
5. Elisha did not come out to meet Naaman, rather he sent his servant who told Naaman to wash 7 times in the Jordan River.
6. The Bible says: 11 But Naaman went away angry and said, "I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed?" So he turned and went off in a rage. (2 Kgs. 5:11-12)
a. Naaman had wanted Elisha to come out to him, personally.
b. Naaman wanted something sensational to be done to him.
c. The last thing he wanted to do was dip in the dirty Jordan River in Israel.
d. Naaman didn’t want to obey – he wanted to do it his way.
7. The Bible says: 13 Naaman's servants went to him and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, 'Wash and be cleansed'!" 14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. (2 Kgs. 5:13-14)
8. Naaman’s healing came only when he put his faith into obedience.
a. His healing didn’t come after the first dip in the Jordan, but after the 7th time.
Conclusion:
A. God loved and God gave. God’s gift is for everyone.
1. Everyone who will believe.
2. Belief must demonstrate itself in obedient action.
B. We demonstrate our faith, our trust, in so many ways in our everyday lives.
1. We believe the chair will support us, so we set our weight on it.
2. We believe water will hydrate us, so we drink it.
3. We believe that the light switch will bring us electricity, so we flip it.
C. For a long time, we preachers have been using a couple of good illustrations to convey what faith is all about.
1. In one of the illustrations, a man falls off a cliff and hangs from a branch coming out of the cliff
a. He yells for someone to help him.
b. Finally, the voice of God answers and tells him to let go so God can catch him.
c. The man proceeds to holler, “Isn’t there anyone else up there who can help me?”
2. The other illustration is of the famous tightrope walker, Blondin.
a. Blondin walked a tightrope across Niagara Falls.
b. Then he pushed a wheelbarrow across.
c. Then he asked the crowd if they thought he could push the wheelbarrow across the tightrope with a person in it.
d. The crowd answered with assurance that he could.
e. Then he asked for a volunteer – none stepped forward.
f. Everyone believed he could do it, no one was willing to put their trust in him.
D. That’s the difference between saving faith and no faith at all.
1. Saving faith is a faith that is willing to get in the wheelbarrow and allow Jesus to take us to heaven.
2. We must put our faith in Christ and lean our whole life on Him.
3. “Whoever Believes” is the way to take God up on his offer.
4. We must express our faith the way God says to, just as the Israelites were saved by looking at the pole with the bronze snake.
5. Jesus said: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mk. 16:16)
6. Jesus said: “If anyone would comes after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Lk. 9:23)
7. Do you believe? Are you trusting and obeying? Have you been baptized? Are you daily following Jesus?
Resources:
“3:16 – The Numbers of Hope” by Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 2007
“God’s Whoever Policy” Sermon by Jeffery Anselmi, SermonCentral.com
“We Believe” Sermon by Jeffery Anselmi, SermonCentral.com
