John's Story 3 (God's Love)
Christmas Story Part 3
John 3:16-17
Today, we will continue our Advent message series.
During this series, we are thinking about the significance of the birth of Jesus that happened over 2,000 years ago.
Today, we will think about the fact that Jesus came to love us.
Why does an event that happened 2,000 years ago still cause traffic jams?
Why is Christmas the most celebrated holiday?
Why do billions of people shut down stores, go to church services, go to parties, and have family gatherings to celebrate Christmas?
What makes Christmas so special?
The birth of Jesus is the most significant event in history.
It splits history into B.C. and A.D.
Every time when we use a date, we are using the birth of Jesus to measure years.
However, we can get caught up in all the distractions of the Christmas season, and miss the real purpose of Christmas.
This is why we must know and remember the real purpose of Christmas.
So, what is the real purpose of Christmas?
Many think that the purpose of Christmas is to get together with family to reconnect and exchange gifts.
Others think that the purpose of Christmas is to enjoy oneself and go to parties.
Still others think that the purpose of Christmas is to just relax.
Some of these answers may be right and some of them are way off.
I believe that it is important to understand what the Bible says is the purpose of the Christmas.
After all, Christmas was God’s idea.
He planned that it will happen.
He planned when it will happen.
He planned where it will happen.
He planned why it will happen.
Since it was God’s idea, we should find out what He had in mind.
So, what was God’s purpose for Christmas?
Why did He send His Son into the world?
John was one of the original Twelve Disciples of Jesus.
He spent more than three years with Jesus.
He realized why Jesus came.
And He wrote the reason why Jesus came in his gospel.
In John 3:16-17, he said that God sent Jesus into this world to love us.
This is why we must celebrate His birth by remembering these three things.
I. We must remember that He loves us (v. 16a).
Verse 16a says this.
16 For God so loved the world…
Perhaps, this is the most famous passage in the Bible.
The first thing that God told us by sending His Son into this world is this: I love you.
His purpose in sending Jesus into the world was to show His love to us.
By doing that, He would draw people to Himself.
The Bible says, “God is love.”
It does not say, “He has love.”
But He is love.
Love is His nature.
Love is His character.
The Bible also says that God made us to love us.
He loves us on good days, and He loves us on bad days.
He loves us when we feel it, and He loves us when we do not feel it.
He loves us when we think we deserve it, and He loves us when we think we do not deserve it.
God’s love is not based on what we do, but it is based on who He is.
God is love.
Perhaps, we can never fully comprehend how much God loves us.
We do not have the mental capacity to fully comprehend how much God loves us.
But God is love.
And because of that, He loves us.
He can never hate us or love us any less than He does.
There is a passage in the Bible that I go to whenever I want to remind myself of His love.
This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible.
Romans 8:35-39 say this.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God loves us so much.
Nothing can separate us from His love.
It is because not only does God love us, but He is love.
His love for us originated from His nature and character.
This is good news.
So, why did God send His Son into this world?
It is to show us that He loves us.
God loved us so much that He sent His one and only Son to earth to die on the cross in our place.
God loves us this much.
Whenever we go through difficulties in our lives, we may doubt God’s love.
We may question, “Why did God allow this to happen? Doesn’t He love me? Doesn’t He care?”
Whenever we doubt God’s love, we must see Jesus lying in a manger.
God sent Jesus into this world to show us that He loves us.
This is the first reason why we should celebrate Christmas.
We must remember that He loves us.
II. We must remember that He is with us (v. 16b).
Verse 16b says this.
…that he gave his one and only Son,
God gave His Son to us.
And because God gave His one and only Son to us, He is not absent from us.
He is not distant from us.
He is with us always.
We may not feel His presence all the time.
But God is with us all the time, whether we feel it or not.
In fact, the Bible tells us that one of Jesus’ names is “Immanuel,” which means “God is with us.”
God is always with us.
Just like God cannot not love us, He cannot not be with us.
Another favorite passage of mine is Deuteronomy 31:6.
Deuteronomy 31:6 says this.
6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.
People can be abandoned by parents, spouse, friends, or others.
I am sorry if that ever happened to you.
But God will never abandon us or leave us.
We may not feel that He is with us.
But that means that we are not in tune with Him.
God is with us but we are not sensitive to His presence.
We must remember that God cannot and will not abandon us.
Did you know that God does not want us to be alone?
He did not design us to live in isolation.
This is why God said this when He created the first human being.
Genesis 2:18 says this.
18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
What does this mean?
It means we need other people in our lives.
We need our parents, grand-parents, spouse, friends, neighbors, and in-laws.
We were never meant to live in isolation.
We need other people around us.
Do others cause us some headaches and heartaches?
Of course, they do.
But it is better to live in community with others who are imperfect than to live and die alone.
We need others in our lives.
But more than that, we need God in our lives.
If we are lonely during this Christmas season, we need to turn to God.
We need to get connected to God.
We need to develop our relationship with God.
The Good News of Christmas is this:
Not only does God loves us, but He is also with us all of the time.
We must be aware of His presence.
We are not alone because God says, “I am always with you.”
When God is with us, it removes our loneliness.
We do not have to fear.
We do not have to worry.
We do not have to be anxious about what is going to happen in the future.
God is with us, and we are never alone.
God says, “I am with you and I am going to help you.”
Some of us lost our loved ones this year.
This might be the first time you are spending Christmas without that person.
We might feel that we are all alone.
Then we must remember that God is with us.
Some of us who are single can feel lonely during this season.
I still remember when I was single.
Most of my friends were married.
They were spending Christmas with their families.
I felt all alone.
Christmas can be the loneliest time for many people.
Then we must remember that God is with us.
So, why did God send His Son into this world?
It is to show us that He is with us.
This is the second reason why we should celebrate Christmas.
We must remember that He is with us.
Now, not only God loves us, not only God is with us, but there is another reason why we should celebrate Christmas.
III. We must remember that He is for us (vv. 16c-17).
Verses 16c-17 say this.
…that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn us.
Rather, He sent His Son into the world to save us through Him.
But there is one condition for salvation.
Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Salvation does not come by works.
We cannot work our way into heaven.
Rather, salvation is a gift received when we believe in Jesus.
If we believe that God sent His one and only Son into the world to die for our sins, we receive eternal life as a gift.
We are free from condemnation.
We receive eternal life in heaven.
That is why God sent Jesus into this world 2,000 years ago.
In other words, God is not against us.
He is not out to get us.
He is not out to make us miserable.
He is always on our side.
He does not want to condemn us.
He wants to save us.
He wants us to win.
He wants us to succeed.
He wants us to be saved and live eternally with Him in heaven.
He is for us.
That is the good news of Christmas.
Some people are afraid of God.
They get nervous and feel guilty when people talk about God.
They know that they have committed sins in their lives and think that God will come after them.
They may be thinking, “If I get close to God, He will rebuke me. He will remind me of all the sins that I have ever committed. He will punish me for my sins.”
But the Bible says that Jesus did not come to condemn us.
He said, “I did not come to punish you. I did not come to condemn you. I came to save you.”
If we believe that Jesus came and died to pay the penalty for our sins, we can be forgiven of our sins.
We can be free from our sins.
This is the good news of Christmas.
Romans 8:31 says this.
31 If God is for us, who can be against us?
The answer is… nobody!
We can have confidence when God is for us.
God is for us.
God is for every single one of us.
This means… if we are followers of Jesus, then we must be like Jesus.
We must be for others and love others.
It is not our role to condemn others.
That is not our job or role.
Our role is to love sinners who are like us.
Yes, we must judge that sin is sin, but we must not condemn the sinners.
Instead, we must show them who Jesus is by loving them.
We must point people to the way, the truth, and the life.
We must tell others why Jesus came into this world.
We must show them the love of God.
When the angels came to announce the birth of Jesus, they said, “Don’t be afraid!”
The Bible says it over and over again to not be afraid.
In fact, there are 365 “fear nots” in the Bible.
That is one “fear not” for every day of a year.
We do not have to fear.
Why did God send His Son into this world?
It was to show us that He is for us.
This is the third reason why we should celebrate Christmas.
We must remember that He is for us.
Conclusion
Even before I came to know who Jesus is, I celebrated Christmas.
I went out with my friends.
I went to Christmas parties.
I sent out Christmas cards.
I exchanged gifts with others.
However, after I became a Christian, I realized that there is a deeper reason to celebrate Christmas.
No matter who we are…
No matter where we came from…
No matter what we have done in our lives…
Christmas is good news for us.
John spent over three years with Jesus.
He saw what Jesus did.
He heard what Jesus said.
And when he decided to write about Jesus, this was his conclusion: Jesus came to love us and save us.
God who created the universe, God who set the stars in their place says, “I love you. I am with you. I am for you.”
If you feel that nobody loves you, remember that Jesus loves you.
If you feel that you are all alone, remember that Jesus is with you.
If you feel that everyone is against you, remember that Jesus is for you.
And those of us who are convinced of these truths must go to people who feel that nobody loves them, are all alone, and feel that everyone is against them, and show them that it is not true.
We must love them, be with them, and show that Jesus loves them.
This is why Jesus came.
This is worth celebrating.
This is why we celebrate Christmas.
