“What’s Love Got to Do With It?”
John 3:16
INTRODUCTION: Do you believe God is a loving God? Some of you have a knee-jerk “yes” response, because that’s what you’ve been taught to believe. But do your actions & attitudes reflect that? Down deep, do you really believe that God is a loving God? And that as a loving God, He loves you?
ILLUSTRATION: In "The Wizard of Oz," Dorothy, the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man arrive at the legendary Emerald City to meet with the Wizard. The Wizard is reputed to hold the power to solve each of the travelers’ problems. But to enter his presence, they must first traverse a long, dimly lit, gothic hallway. The Lion is not alone in his cowardice as they enter the large inner sanctum. They are greeted with an explosion and billows of green smoke.
When the smoke finally clears, a giant, menacing, bodiless head shouts, "I am Oz, the great and terrible! Who are you?"
Dorothy attempts a response, but the Wizard booms, "Silence! The great and powerful Oz knows why you are here! Step forward, Tin Man."
The Tin Man approaches this ominous-looking figure with great trepidation, only to hear the Wizard say, "You dare come to me for a heart, you clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk?"
The other travelers are met with similar greetings. To the Scarecrow, he shouts, "You have the effrontery to ask for a brain, you billowing bale of bovine fodder?"
To the Cowardly Lion, Oz shouts, "And you, Lion?" The poor Lion is overcome with fear and faints.
This, unfortunately, is similar to the unflattering caricature summoned up by many when they think about God. The Wizard puts on a (false) show of power & majesty, but there is no love, no grace, no mercy.
Is that your image of God, deep down? Or do you really believe God is a loving God?
In several places, the Bible gives an awesome picture of the holiness of God and the reverence he rightly inspires. To Moses as well as in visions given to Isaiah and Ezekiel, God manifests himself with fire and smoke and authority. That is who God is. But God is also loving and compassionate and good. And Easter proves it! There’s a verse in John that makes this case neatly and succinctly. It’s John 3:16 [READ]
I. GOD CANNOT LOVE YOU MORE THAN THAT (16a)
A. The Greek construction behind “so loved that He gave” emphasizes the intensity of the love, and “His one and only Son” stresses the greatness of the gift. The Father gave His best—his unique and beloved Son.
B. ILLUSTRATION: In 1989, 96 fans were crushed to death in a football [soccer] stadium in Sheffield, England, and another 200 were injured. At one of the hospitals where victims were taken, an attending surgeon spoke to the parents who had come to find out the fate of their children. The surgeon read the names of those killed and expressed his sympathy. He said that he believed that God understood the parents’ grief and was with them in their time of need. One father bitterly responded: "What does God know about losing a son?"
C. The "world" in John is a symbol for all that is in rebellion against God, all that is loveless and disobedient, all that is selfish and sinful.
1. When we read therefore in John 3:16 that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son," we are not to think that God’s love is being praised by reference to the world’s bigness, but by reference to its badness.
2. This ugly, sinful, rebellious world, this sewer of infidelity, this glut of endless selfishness, this habitation of cruelty, this lover of violence, this promoter of greed, this maker of idols—this world God loved, and loved so much that he sent his Son to save us.
D. ILLUSTRATION: The mother of a nine-year-old Kentucky boy named Mark received a phone call in the middle of the afternoon. It was the teacher from her son’s school.
"Mrs. Smith, something unusual happened today in your son’s third grade class. Your son did something that surprised me so much that I thought you should know about immediately." The mother began to grow worried.
The teacher continued, "Nothing like this has happened in all my years of teaching. This morning I was teaching a lesson on creative writing. And as I always do, I tell the story of the ant and the grasshopper:
"The ant works hard all summer and stores up plenty of food. But the grasshopper plays all summer and does no work.
"Then winter comes. The grasshopper begins to starve because he has no food. So he begins to beg, ’Please Mr. Ant, you have much food. Please let me eat, too.’" Then I said, "Boys and girls, your job is to write the ending to the story."
"Your son, Mark, raised his hand. ’Teacher, may I draw a picture?’
"’Well, yes, Mark, if you like, you may draw a picture. But first you must write the ending to the story.’
"As in all the years past, most of the students said the ant shared his food through the winter, and both the ant and the grasshopper lived.
A few children wrote, ’No, Mr. Grasshopper. You should have worked in the summer. Now, I have just enough food for myself.’ So the ant lived and the grasshopper died.
"But your son ended the story in a way different from any other child, ever. He wrote, ’So the ant gave all of his food to the grasshopper; the grasshopper lived through the winter. But the ant died.’
"And the picture? At the bottom of the page, Mark had drawn three crosses."
>>God cannot love you more than that. And because He is a loving God,
II. GOD WILL NOT LOVE YOU LESS THAN THAT (16b)
A. The resurrection of Jesus was a hidden event.
1. Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to prove to those who had crucified him that they had made a mistake, or confound his opponents.
2. Nor did he rise to impress the rulers of his time or to force anyone to believe.
3. Jesus’ resurrection was the full affirmation of his Father’s love.
[READ John 20:1-18]
B. Jesus only showed himself to those who knew about this love. He made himself known as the risen Lord, only to a handful of his close friends.
1. There is probably no event in human history that has had such importance, while remaining, at the same time, so unspectacular.
2. The world didn’t notice it; only those few to whom Jesus had chosen to show himself, and whom he wanted to send out to announce God’s love to the world just as he had done.
C. QUOTE: Billy Graham: “When we preach atonement, it is atonement planned by love, provided by love, given by love, finished by love, necessitated because of love. When we preach the resurrection of Christ, we are preaching the miracle of love. When we preach the return of Christ, we are preaching the fulfillment of love.”
>> Now what? God cannot love more & will not love less—so what do I do with that?
III. WHAT DO WE DO WITH GOD’S LOVE?
A. APPLICATION: Receive God’s love by believing in Christ
1. ILLUSTRATION: At the height of his stardom, Mel Gibson realized he was empty. He had achieved everything he ever hoped for—except a sense of purpose. Gibson felt he was drowning in fame, wealth, drink, and despair. This led the one-time "Sexiest Man Alive" to his knees and back to God. In a Reader’s Digest interview, Gibson says,
“There was a time in my life when I was really searching. I was asking all those Shakespearean Hamlet questions: "What’s on the other side? Why am I here?" I might have looked like I’m living the high life, making movies and jetting around the world, but true happiness resides within. I was spiritually bankrupt, and when that happens, it’s like a spiritual cancer afflicts you. It starts to eat its way through, and if you don’t do something, it’s going to take you. So I simply had to draw a line in the sand.” This 12-year pilgrimage led Gibson to the Gospels and the passion of Christ. He was able to realize what Jesus did on the cross.
2. “Believe” involves more than intellect—it’s a relationship.
B. APPLICATION: Stop demanding God prove His love in other ways. Your sin & Christ’s righteousness have transferred accounts.
C. APPLICATION: Stop trying to justify yourself to God
QUOTE: Steven Curtis Chapman: “In the gospel, we discover we are far worse off than we thought, and far more loved than we ever dreamed.”
CONCLUSION: When Steve Henning of Huntley, Illinois, was two years old, he contracted spinal meningitis. It was the winter of 1943, and because of World War II, doctors had a shortage of penicillin and could not provide Steve the treatment he needed. Sadly, he lost his hearing.
For 57 years, Steve could not hear music, laughter, or human speech. Even though he lived a full life, he still longed to hear the voices of those he loved.
In the winter of 2001, he learned of a surgical procedure that would allow sound waves to bypass the non-functioning part of his ear and travel directly to the auditory nerve. On January 30th he was operated on. Because the implanted device could not be activated until the swelling in the ear decreased, doctors and Steve didn’t know if the operation was successful for six weeks.
The day of reckoning came on a blustery spring day. Steve nervously wondered if the procedure had been in vain. As the audiologist programmed the cochlear implant, he invited Steve’s wife to say something. Pat Henning leaned toward her husband and gently said, "I love you." Able to hear for the first time in six decades, Steve’s face broke into a smile. The first words he heard were of love.
When a person comes to know Christ, the Lord opens spiritual ears that have previously been unable to hear. Paul describes this transformation to the Corinthians this way: "Old things pass away, and all things become new." That includes the ability to hear God saying, "I love you!"
QUOTE: Max Lucado: "If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen."
