John 3:16 Pt 3

There are no notes for John 3:16 Pt 2. That was entirely from the heart as that was what I was led to do. However, it is on our youtube channel if you want to rewatch it. 

Glen

Seven Wonders of John 3:16 pt 3


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I know what I’m about to tell you is going to come as a shock to you. When I was in elementary school I actually played outside a decent bit. I lived in a neighborhood close to the High School. There were a lot of kids my age in it at that time. In the summer, we would build forts in the woods. Then we would create a club! I wish I could remember a single club name we thought of, I’m sure a list of those would be solid gold! The club would go well for a day or two until eventually a fight would break out between two or more of the members. We would all take sides over whatever issue we were fighting over. Like that garbage chair we found abandoned in the words should be in this corner or that corner, ghostbusters is or isn’t the best cartoon, or whose the best wrestler Hulk Hogan, or Ric Flair? Flair of course, let’s not be ridiculous. 


Once we reached an impasse and sides were choosing one half would leave and go start there own club. Then the kid that was out of town would come back and have to chose a side and once he chose one side he was excluded from the other! Until, we all made up the next week and started the whole cycle again. 


If you think about it, our whole lives are dealing with exclusion and limitations. You must be this tall to ride, tickets are sold out, only members are allowed in here, there are no positions available at this time. Fill that away while we dig into John 3:16 pt 3 Members Only



John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Nicodemus has come to Jesus at night to discuss things with him. Who is Jesus? Why does He teach the way He does? How can he do these miracles? What was that business with the temple tables? Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, gets the answers to all his questions but not in the way he expected. He finds out that good works won’t get him into heaven, but faith and grace.

·       It’s while Nicodemus is trying to process that that Jesus gives us the most familiar verse in the Bible, 

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

There are 7 wonders to be found in John 3:16. Pastor & Author David Guzik listed them as such.

God	The Almighty Authority
So loved the world	The Mightiest Motive
That He gave His only begotten Son	The Greatest Gift
That whoever	The Widest Welcome
Believes in Him	The Easiest Escape
Should not perish	The Divine Deliverance
But have everlasting life	The Priceless Possession

Two weeks ago we talked about God, The Almighty Authority. In our family devotion time recently Sam asked “Daddy, where did God come from?” I told Him. God is eternal. He always has been, always is and always will be. It was fun watching his 8 year old brain trying and comprehend this. It was a great moment as a father to see my son contemplate the concept of eternity for the first time. John 3:16 starts with God, The Eternal All Powerful maker of the heavens and the earth. 


Then we saw the mightiest motive, love. Not the temporary conditional love that the world offers. I love you until it’s no longer convenient or no longer benefits me. God’s Love is that Agape love, a statement of commitment evidenced by unconditional sacrifice. We’ve all made sacrifices for those that we love. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the love on display. We make minor sacrifices for strangers, giving up a seat, letting someone in front of you in the check out line. The biggest sacrifices are reserved for those that we love the most. 


John 15:3 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”


 God, in demonstrating His love for us, made the ultimate sacrifice. When He gave His only begotten Son. This was the greatest sacrifice, and the greatest gift. Who is this gift for? Whosoever. What does that word even mean? The English definition is whoever, whatever person. Yet, that doesn’t really give it justice. 


The Greek is the word Pas. It includes all forms of declension (ways of categorizing things), all, any, every, the whole, all manner of, all means, always, any, any one, ever, everyone, every way, as many as, thoroughly, whatsoever, whole, whosoever. It is the most inclusive word possible! 


How much of daily life, or our lives have revolved around exclusion? I mentioned this in the opening. We all know what’s it like to miss out on something, to be excluded. Given my utter lack of athletic talent it shouldn’t be surprising I typically got excluded from sports during recess. When we took the kids to Universal there were certain rides the younger ones couldn’t go on due to height/age restrictions. We see people excluded for every reason imaginable. Your to young, to old, the wrong color, race, gender, ethnicity or religion. You pull for the wrong team, the wrong political party, or you wear the wrong clothes. 


Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with us personally, it could be limitations on the place we are trying to enter. I missed out on many a concert simply because they sold out of tickets. Once Me, Pastor Drew and our friend Jared went to Greensboro to see the band Disciple in concert. We got there and they were sold out. No more room in the building! We were so close! We were so excited to see this concert! We planned to stand by the door and listen to them in the parking lot! Eventually, we talked our way in. Then we watched as others got turned away. 


It could be just a limit on the item we are trying to obtain. In that there are more people that want than they are of the item trying to be obtained. I remember my parents frantically trying to obtain a tickle me Elmo back in 96 for my sister. Right now it’s Toilet Paper and Paper Towels that are scarce. 


However, when it comes to the greatest gift, God’s Son, given by the greatest giver (God, The Father), for the greatest reason (Unconditional love) it’s available to everyone. EVERYONE! The Greek word Pas for whosoever is the most inclusive possible word! No one, No one. Is excluded, for any reason from the gospel, ever. The Widest Welcome! 


Whosoever does what? We know the opportunity is available to everyone but what does it require? Is there a complicated admission process? Do I have to right an essay? Is it one of those interviews where you have to answer random questions like why are manhole covers round? What kind of animal would you be if you were blind? Are you competing with all these other people? Most of the things we want in life are finite and more for you means less for me. 


Whosoever believes in Him. 


The admonishment to believe occurs frequently in the Old and New Testament. What does it mean to believe? 

 to think to be true; to be persuaded of; to credit, place confidence in; We place our faith in lots of things and those things all let us down at one point or another. When the car doesn’t start. When the electricity or the internet goes out. When the fast food place gets your order wrong. We expect these things to work and when they don’t we are surprised, we are disappointed. We want everything to work perfectly all the time to our benefit and when it doesn’t, we get mad. We take it out on other people.  We go on rants about how terrible the system is, people are, etc. 


What this reveals is two fold. 1) That the world is sinful and fallen. 2) That we placed our faith in the wrong person, place, thing or idea. 


Jesus tells us where all our faith and believes should be centered. In Him. The only way out of this sinful world and into an eternity of sinless perfection is Him. His love. His provision. His plan. As Christians I would dare say that the majority of you would give intellectual acknowledgement to that statement. I acknowledge that statement. Then I see something terrible on the new Covid 19 related or not and I’m like how terrible! God how could you let that happen? How could that be part of the plan? 


Mark 9:17-27 The following happens

17Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”

19He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” 20Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.

21So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?”

And he said, “From childhood. 22And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

23Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

24Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

25When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it: “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” 26Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” 27But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

I relate to this father. I relate more so to his sentiment in Mark 9:24 “I believe; help my unbelief!” There’s a lot of us like that. We believe, but then the difficult times come. Maybe we have faith at first but it continues and continues and only gets worse. Days turn to weeks, weeks into months, months into years. We pray, we make offerings, we call upon “holy men”. Yet nothing changes. We wonder if God maybe has forgotten about us. Yet, because of the cross we know this isn’t true. Jesus raised the man’s child back to life.

Hebrews 11:1 “ Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ² For by it the people of old received their commendation. ³ By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.


Jesus is our great and easiest escape. There’s nothing we can do because there is nothing to be done. It was all already done on the cross. We simply trust in the fact that the work is done, because we believe in the one who did it. 


The glory of the resurrection of Jesus is this Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” –Jesus understands what you are dealing with even when no one else does. Therefore we can boldly go to the throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Thank God this week for being a whosoever, and for the grace in that belief.