It is perhaps the best known verse of the Bible. Almost anyone can quote it, at least in paraphrase. It is the verse that every child learns in Sunday school and VBS. I remember making a little wall plaque in Bible school with the verse on it.
I remember that 15 to 20 years ago, you would see it at sporting events. When you watched a baseball, football or basketball game you would see someone holding up sign with Scripture reference on it. You don’t see it as much anymore, but it is still a favorite verse.
The verse is, of course, John 3:16. It used to be that everyone knew this verse. It was in the days before WWJD and the other recent fads.
I learned it in the King James Version, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” I could quote that when I was a young lad, even though I had no idea what “begotten” meant. It’s the one verse that speaks volumes to people.
It is even more powerful when taken in the context in which the Apostle John originally penned it. Imagine the scene. Jesus has gained immense notoriety, and the religious leaders take notice. They discuss what do about this peasant, homeless prophet from Galilee. One of the leaders decides to go to Jesus to talk to him about all the miracles he has done. The leader wants to know if Jesus is a true prophet or not. He arranges a nighttime rendezvous with Jesus. No one is sure why they met at night. Perhaps the leader was fearful of his peers. He may have been concerned about how it looked. He may also have just wanted to meet with Jesus when there were no crowds so they could a quiet uninterrupted discussion. Either way, these two men meet on this particular night.
Turn with me to John 3. Read John 3:1-17.
Everyone has his or her favorite scripture passage, but John 3:16 has been called “everybody’s favorite passage.” It’s been the called the gospel in a nutshell. Perhaps this verse has been used to help people accept Jesus as Savior more than any other verse. It tells us a great deal.
I. It tells us that the INITIATIVE in all SALVATION is from God.
There is nothing we can do to achieve our salvation. We cannot work for it. We cannot earn it. We cannot even initiate it. We don’t go looking for God. He has come looking for us.
Every other religion devised by mankind seeks to “find” their god or gods. They try to appease their god. When things go well for them, they say, “Well, I must be living right.” People try to earn the favor of God. It doesn’t work that way.
A. God does not need to be PACIFIED.
We can do nothing to earn the favor of God. We cannot be good enough. We cannot go Church enough. We cannot read the Bible enough. We cannot fast enough. We cannot even pray enough.
This is where our friend Nicodemus had gone wrong. The Pharisees were a group of men who thought that by meticulously observing the Law of God they could earn the favor of God. They elevated legalism to an art form. It went beyond the Old Testament law. They had incorporated tradition. Through the years, various religious leaders had sought to interpret the Law so it was clear. The fourth commandment was to keep the Sabbath holy. So that there was no confusion about what it meant to not work on the Sabbath, the religious leaders had determined how far one could walk on the Sabbath. They figured out to the ounce how much one could carry on the Sabbath. This was nothing less than an attempt to try to gain the favor of God. Nick and his friends thought this was the way to get to heaven.
It came as a great shock when Jesus responded to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Now, when Jesus says, “Truly, truly” it is time to listen up. Nick had thought that rule keeping was the way to see God. Being born again was no means of pacifying God. The word again, in the original language, can mean either again, anew or from above.
Nick is confused about this. How can I be born again?
B. It was God who SENT his Son.
It is only through believing in Jesus that we can be born again. It is because God sent his Son. When we believe in Jesus and he forgives our sins, it is like starting over. Our record is wiped clean. Imagine a whiteboard with all the sins we have committed written on it. Jesus comes and takes an eraser and wipes it clean. He then takes the whiteboard cleaner and uses that to get rid of our sins. The key is…
1. It is all about FAITH in God.
We have to exercise our faith in God. We have to believe that he sent his Son for us. God sent his Son to die for each one of us. God has loved us so much.
2. God’s ATTITUDE toward humanity has not CHANGED.
God’s attitude toward us didn’t change when Jesus died. God has been seeking to renew the relationship with humanity since Adam and Eve sinned. This is nothing new.
God has sought us out. When we turn our back on God, he is right there. Jesus is knocking on our heart’s door. He is never going walk away from us. God has sent his Son for us. This verse tells us more.
II. It tells us that the MAINSPRING of God’s being is LOVE.
1 John 4:8 says, “God is love.” In his nature God is love. Sometimes we get the mistaken notion that God is a vengeful God. We think of him as someone who sits on his throne just waiting for us to mess up so he can squash us like a bug. Nothing could be farther from the truth. He loves us more than we can imagine. As much as we love our parents, spouse or children, he loves us infinitely more.
A. God is not seeking our ALLEGIANCE to satisfy his POWER.
God is not a power hungry dictator seeking to badger us into submission. God is the Creator and Ruler of the universe. He doesn’t need our allegiance to be God. He doesn’t need anything from us.
We sometimes get God confused with earthly rulers. We think of Saddam Hussein demanding allegiance. In Iraq it was either give Saddam allegiance or get your tongue cut out.
With God, it all flows from his love.
1. God is not ANGRY.
God is not a grumpy old man. He doesn’t sit around and complain about everything. That is not to say that when we die, God is going to accept us into heaven if we haven’t believed in Jesus and accepted him and his Savior. There is still punishment for those who don’t believe. If we believe, we will not perish. The converse of that is if we don’t believe, we will perish.
2. The LOVE of God is not a contradiction to his WRATH.
The unfortunate thing is that there are people who will refuse to believe. Just like Nick, some will be skeptical and not believe. Nick later did believe in Jesus, but many of his fellow religious leaders did not. Jesus asked Nick, “Are you not the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” Nick and the boys had been studying the Old Testament, but they did not see that it was pointing to Jesus. Many of them refused to believe, and as a result were lost.
It’s not always something we like to talk about, but those who don’t believe will be lost.
B. God is acting for our SAKE to satisfy his LOVE.
God is not acting for his sake to satisfy his power. God is seeking us out to satisfy his love. He is the Father who won’t be happy or rest until the wandering child returns home.
He is like the dad who paces the living room until 1:00 A.M. when junior finally decides to return home.
Have you ever been in a store or mall where a child was trying to run away from his parents? The child runs and hides. He thinks it’s a game. The parents urge him not to do anymore. Then, one time he goes to far. When he peeks around the corner, he can’t see mom or dad. All of a sudden, his world crashes. He cries out for mommy and daddy. When daddy squats down and holds out his arms, the child comes running into the arms of his daddy.
God is waiting for us with his arms open.
God is not going to beat us into submission. He’s not going to twist our arm behind our back until we say, “Okay God, I’ll follow you.” He loves us and desires to have a relationship with us. He woos us with love.
John 3:16 tells something else.
III. It tells us the WIDTH of God’s LOVE.
How wide is God’s love? An inch? A mile? Is it as wide as the ocean? How wide is God’s love? God’s love is wide.
A. It is not NATION or GOOD PEOPLE, it is the WORLD that God loves.
God’s love is wide enough to love every single member of the human race. There is not, nor has there ever been, a human being whom God does not love. God loved Mother Theresa. Who can dispute that? God also loved Adolf Hitler. The words “For God so loved the world” show the width of God’s love. This encompasses every single member of the human race, even the neighbor whose dog barks all night.
There was a certain amount of confidence in the time of Jesus, that those born of Jewish descent would be okay. Nick thought he was okay because he been born in the right race.
Jesus challenged him in verse 7, “Do no marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” Nick must have had some shocked look on his face when Jesus told him that. It wasn’t difficult for Nick to swallow the thought that the heathen Gentiles had to be born again. But, he was a Jew. He kept the Law. He strictly observed it. He needed to be born again, just like everyone else.
The truth is…
B. God loves those who LOVE him and those who DON’T.
God has the same amount of love for those who strictly obey him and follow his commands as someone who doesn’t. God loved Adolf Hitler as much as he loved Mother Theresa. Sometimes that is hard for us to swallow.
God is seeking a relationship with everyone, even those who reject him. God loves even someone who willfully turns his back on God and worships another god.
Often we criticize our friend Nick for not getting what it meant to be born again. He said, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” We assume that he didn’t catch the meaning of what Jesus was talking about. It is possible that he believed that Jesus was talking about another physical birth. I’m not so convinced by that. Nick was a smart guy. I think what he was saying was “Look, I’m old. I’ve lived my life the wrong way for so long. Can God really accept me?” I think that Nick understood more that we give him credit for. He was seeking and asking. He was certainly more sincere than the crowds that praised Jesus on Sunday and wanted him executed later that week.
The truth is that no matter how old we are or what we have don in our life, God can give us new life. There is nothing we can do that would stop God’s love for us. Nick was concerned about what many are concerned about in our day. He thought he had gone too far for God to love him. While we are alive, we cannot go beyond the scope of God’s love.
Augustine, a leader in the Church centuries ago, said, “God love each one of us as if there was only one of us.”
The width of God’s love includes every one of us. As long as we are members of the human race we in the scope of God’s love. Even if we have turned our back on him, he loves us.
Conclusion
We see that God initiated the plan of salvation. We see that it springs from God’s love. We see that love is for every member of the human race.
Have you believed in Jesus to receive eternal life? It is for everyone. No one is beyond the scope of God’s love.
Nicodemus believed. We find later in the Gospel of John that he defended Jesus. We find that he helped with the burial costs of Jesus. This man who said that it was impossible for him to be born again, was, in fact, born again.
If it worked for him, it can work for you.
