Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Special Services/Advent2009/A life of Love

Advent 2009

Message: ‘A life of Love                                                                     Text: John 3:16

Introduction: I believe it was in the late 60’s or early 70’s Jackie Deshannon had a hit with the song ‘What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love (Sweet Love)’ You remember it.

 

What the world needs now is love, Sweet love
It's the only thing That there's just too little of
What the world needs now Is love, sweet love
No, not just for some, But for everyone

Lord, we don't need another meadow
There are cornfields And wheat fields

enough to grow
There are sunbeams and moonbeams 

Enough to shine
Oh, listen lord, If you want to know.

It’s true, we need love...to survive...to live....we all need love in our lives. But what interesting is that the premise of the song is someone telling God what we need...as if God was on vacation and left before he got the memo. Truth is,

·       the singer was unaware of the love gift God had given to us.

·       She didn’t see that God had already met our need for love.

Transition: Open your Bibles to John 3:16 (pg. 811 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you) For it’s there well hear God sing to us, His love song, of life.

God’s love song goes like this

Read: John 3:16  ‘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.’

It’s important to read verses 14-15 in order to get the full understanding of verse 16.

Read: John 3:14-16 ‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 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.’

The Way

What a beloved verse. Perhaps a favorite for many. But did you know that verse 16, in the Greek, doesn’t say ‘For God so loved the world.’? A literal translation would be ‘For in this way God loved the world.’

What’s the difference? The emphasis in the text is not on how much God loved the world (so) but on the (way) God demonstrated His love…

(remember verses 14-15? Moses lifted up the snake, Son of Man must be lifted up) Let me read the account from Numbers so you get the whole picture.

Read: Numbers 21:4-9 ‘They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 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.” 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.’

OK, back to our text.

Read: John 3:14-16 ‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For in this way God loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’

So, can you see the connection? Can you see what John is trying to say?

·       The snake bites represent our sin and it’s resulting death.

·       God sent Jesus to be lifted up on a cross and when people look to him in faith, their sins are forgiven, just like the ancient Israelites were healed from their deadly snake bites.

Sin must be dealt with...but because of God’s love, He sent Jesus to deal with our sin.

While the word ‘so’ isn’t in the original Greek, that doesn’t lessen how great God’s love for us is....considering He sent His Son, His only son, Jesus, to be lifted up, to die on the cross for our sin...that’s a great love.

‘For in this way God loved the world.’ Love is never content to simply exist as a word... ‘I love you’ is not enough. Am I right? Is it enough that your husband or wife, your child says they love you? Don’t you want more? Don’t you want them to act upon their love.

·       A love that doesn’t serve is seduction.

·       A love that doesn’t listen is a lie.

·       A love that doesn’t provide is a phony.

·       A love that doesn’t give is a gimmick.

·       A love that doesn’t act...is not love.

‘For in this way God loved the world.’ What did God’s love do? It gave. That’s action. God gave because He loved...you.

The Cost

And God not only gave because He loved, He gave something that cost Him everything...His son, Jesus. And I’m not just talking about His death on the cross...I’m talking about the baby in the manger that first Christmas morning. Parent’s

·       Can you imagine having to give up your only child?

·       Can you imagine how you would feel if you gave your newborn baby to someone you know will eventually kill him/her?

God’s love is free...but it is not cheap!

Have you ever said ‘I can’t give you that, it’s the only one I have?’ Aren’t you glad God didn’t say that about Jesus?

To Anyone

God gave because God loved and He gave His only son, Jesus, that first Christmas morning...He gave Him to anyone who would believe. Anyone, really?

God sees people differently than we do. Who God sees, we often try to ignore.

·       When God sees the hurt in people’s lives, the shame that fills their hearts, the misery they are going through. We see people with problems who will be high maintenance.

·       When God sees drug and alcohol wrecked lives, we see troublemakers.

·       When God sees those who suffer from depression, anxiety and fear, we see basket cases.

We get angry with these people and do our best to stay away from them...while ‘God demonstrated his love in while they were yet sinners Christ died for them’…might I add while ‘you were still a sinner, Christ died for you.’

Not Perish

God gave because God loved and He gave His only son, Jesus, that first Christmas morning...He gave Him to all who would believe.

So that they might not perish but have eternal life.

Have you ever seen anything perish? Friends of ours in Oceanport had their house perish by fire...nothing left, everything gone, consumed by the flames...and so is the future of all who reject God’s great gift of love, Jesus.

BUT, eternal life in God’s loving presence is promised to all those who place their faith in Jesus, the One God sent to be our Christmas gift of love.

Conclusion

ILL: A North Dakota blizzard was howling outside Dr. Thompson’s office one night. About 9:00 the phone rang. A man said, “Doc can you come out to my place? My boy is running a high fever and is unconscious. It’s impossible for us to get in to see you. Do you think you could make it out to us?” The doctor said, “Tony, I’ll do my best but I never saw a storm this bad where I came from and it sure scares me.”

On his way out of town he stopped at the local bar and asked three men if they would go with him to help shovel. About halfway the men became exhausted because the snow drifts were getting so deep. The doctor left his car with the men and got a farmer to saddle a horse for the rest of the trip out to Tony’s. The boy was so sick that the doctor knew that if he didn’t get him to a hospital in intensive care soon that he wouldn’t make it. He thought of Ed the County Commissioner. He called him but the commissioner said, “Don’t think I can do anything, but I’ll try.”

At sunrise the doctor got his patient down to the main road, and to his surprise, he found his car running and waiting for him and to learn that the road all the way to town had been cleared. The doctor called the county commissioner to thank him.  “Don’t thank me. I had nothing to do with it.” Surprized the doctor said, “Who did then?” The commissioner said, “Well, you’ve got to know the people around here to understand what happened. When they heard you call me on the party line, they knew something must be wrong. They all listened in and every able-bodied man and boy along that road went to work shoveling and plowing snow.

We live out here in God’s wide-open country where the coyotes howl and the wind blows free. When anybody’s in trouble, we all pitch in to help. We call it “putting love on the line.” (Marilyn Murphree)

I think that we can say that Jesus put His “love on the line” for us.

Whether you were really excited about Christmas, or really struggling this Christmas, God wants you to know that it’s really about one simple thing. It’s about His love for us.

Open your heart. Listen with your ears. Hear in your soul the message God wants you to hear:

“I love you. I love you so much that I sent my Son, if you believe in him you won’t perish but have eternal life. Because I didn’t send my Son to condemn you, but to save you through him. I love you.”

You can know that kind of love, God’s love. You can know it right now, right here...if you believe...and receive Jesus, God’s great gift of love, this Christmas Season.