"Eternal Life" John 3:16 Sunday Morning Worship Service

I want to tell you about the first time I ever opened a Bible.

I was watching soccer on TV when I was 14 years old, the U.S.

against Austria at a stadium in Italy that was mostly empty.

And in the corner of the stadium was a guy, and I only saw him during corner kicks.

He was holding up a sign that said John 3.16.

And I had no idea what that meant.

I thought he was calling a play maybe in soccer, like, you know, on this corner kick, run John 3.16.

But that didn't make a lot of sense because why would a guy in the stands be calling a play?

And soccer doesn't usually use plays.

And also he's there in the second half, also.

So he's not calling that for both teams.

So I was confused.

I went and got my dad.

This is pre-internet.

It's kind of a big deal.

So asked him, what is John 3.16?

And he said, I think it's a Bible verse.

And so now, how do you find what John 3.16 is?

We had a Bible in our house.

Uh now I would just ask Siri.

But we had to actually dust off the Bible and open it up.

And the first thing that I realized is that 316 is not a page number.

The second thing I realized is that it's actually harder to find than one would imagine.

We had this old King James Bible.

My dad was raised Catholic and he had a Bible from when he was a kid.

And there's the apocalypse according to St.

John.

There's three epistles for St.

John, and then you have the gospel according to Saint John the Evangelist.

And that was the one that we settled on rightly and found John 3.16 and read it for God's Loved the World, that he gave his only begotten son, whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life.

And I looked at my dad and I said, What does this have to do with soccer?

And he said, I don't know.

I didn't realize that what I had just read was probably the most memorized verse in the Bible.

That it is easily the most translated sentence in the world.

Every language that has a written language has John 3.16 in it.

Even most languages that are only vocalized, but that have some kind of translation work in it, this is often the first verse that is translated.

It is the most published sentence in the world.

It is the most translated part of the Bible.

The reason this verse is so important, easily the most famous Bible verse in the world, is not because it's held up at soccer games.

Although I went on to learn that was a guy named Roland Stewart who traveled around the world holding up John 3.16 John 3.16 signs at sporting events to get people to watch.

His story is a sad story.

He is currently serving three life sentences in a California prison for kidnapping a hotel maid next to LAX and covering the hotel window with John 3.16 signs to bring attention to the verse, and he's in prison for the rest of his life.

Not a good evangelistic tool, by the way.

The reason it is such a powerful verse, though, is because it is indeed the gospel in a nutshell.

Beyond the gospel in a nutshell, it is the whole Bible in one sentence.

It has truths from Genesis to Revelation, and not tangenti or secondary truths, but the core truths of the scripture.

It teaches you the riches of heaven and the terrors of hell.

It teaches you the truth about God as the Creator and the truth about men as sinners.

It describes the radical nature of sin and the generous and saving character of God.

It shows you that the way of life is narrow, and there are few who find it.

The way to hell is broad, and everyone else is on it.

It shows you beyond the nature of God, the very nature of the gospel and the mission of Jesus Christ himself.

It doesn't come out of nowhere.

Nicodemus was a leader of the Jews who came to Jesus at night.

He snuck into where Jesus was staying at night to ask him this question.

His name was Nicodemus, and that makes this, by the way, the Nicod Night chapter.

I apologize for nothing.

And he asked Jesus what it takes to be saved.

And this is Jesus' response.

It is the greatest verse in the Bible.

And what I mean by that is in a very literal sense, every word, every expression in this verse is almost hyperbolic in its grandeur.

It could not be made more extreme.

Let me show you what I mean by that as we walk through this verse one phrase at a time.

The verse begins with the greatest being.

For God.

That's how it begins.

The greatest being.

There is only one God.

Malachi chapter 2, verse 10.

Malachi 2:10

Has not the one God created us?

Is the question.

There is only one God.

And this is where the Bible begins.

So when I say John 3.16 is a tour of the Bible, this is what I mean.

It starts where the Bible starts.

In the beginning there was nothing, there was emptiness and void, and the Spirit of God hovered upon the faces of the water.

This is how Genesis begins.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The Bible begins with God.

Before anyone was made, before anything was made, before the first angel or the first waterfall, the first human being, there was God.

God has always existed.

He is eternal.

And he is the greatest being.

By that I mean He made all things.

Nobody is alive unless their life is given them by God.

He made the universe by speaking it into existence.

He didn't just will it to come into existence.

He spoke it, showing that he is a revealer.

He reveals himself.

He made the angels by speaking them into existence.

He made the stars, he made the planets, he made the waters, he made the animals, and he made us.

And he's not the watchmaker who winds up the world and steps away.

He made the universe and then sovereignly controls and directs all things according to his will in the universe.

He's still very much engaged in the world today.

All things happen according to his purposes and his will.

The scripture says, in him we live and move and have our being.

Everyone who has life has life because God gave it to him.

And that is true of the angels and the animals and of us.

All life comes from him.

It is a gift.

There is a creature and creator distinction.

God is over us, God is above us, he rules us, he is the greatest being in the world.

And when I say the greatest being in the world, I don't just mean he is the best.

I mean he has the authority and the power to be the source of all things.

He alone is the creator.

There is not a second creator, a third creator, a fourth creator.

God alone is the creator.

All things come from him and are for him and are lived back to him.

1 Corinthians 8, verse 6, there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for him.

1 Corinthians 8:6

When I say he's the creator, I don't just mean he's a powerful force either.

He is a personal being.

He has a moral nature.

He is holy, holy, holy, holy.

When the angels encounter him, that's what they declare.

Isaiah 6, verse 3, holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts.

Isaiah 6:3

The whole earth is filled with his glory.

God is the only being unaffected by the fall, unaffected by sin.

He cannot be tempted.

He is too holy to look upon evil.

He is above all things sinful, unaffected by the fall.

If you saw him, you would melt with fear.

It's not like seeing your boss or seeing a neighbor or anything like that.

It's not like seeing a president or a king.

If you saw God, you would be undone.

Isaiah covered his mouth, filled with the shame of his own speech and his people's speech.

Manoah in the Old Testament pled for death when he saw an angel that represented God.

Daniel, when he saw God's messenger, fell down dead in a trance.

Elijah hid in a cave.

Moses begged when God was speaking to him.

Moses begged the voice of God would stop talking because he could not endure the terror that came with it.

That's God.

High and lifted up, exalted, the creator of all things, the greatest being imaginable.

That's God.

And so John 3.16 begins with him, the greatest being.

There's no one like him.

He is a judge so holy and so righteous, no one stands a chance before him.

He is the sovereign God, the greatest person, the greatest being, God.

And well, the second phrase is for God so loved.

This is the greatest affection.

There is affection.

The greatest display of who God is is his affection of love.

The scripture says that God is light, God is life, and God is love.

When it says God is light, it means that God is a revealer.

He illuminates, he shines.

He not only creates, but he reveals himself in his creation.

When the scripture says that God is life, it means that everyone that is alive has life from him.

He is the only source of life, the only fountain of life.

You have life because he lent it to you.

But he is also love.

Love is the greatest affection.

Now we know this at a human level, don't we?

We know that there's all kinds of affections and emotions in the human life that are good and virtuous.

There's anger and happiness and sorrow and contentment, there's joy, there's apathy, there's a spectrum of emotions.

But love stands out as chief among all of those.

I mean, again, even at a human level, that's true.

When you get married, you don't stand in front of your wife and pledge to be angry and happy and joyful and apathetic and content with her as long as the two of you shall live.

You pledge your love to her.

Love is the greatest affection.

When you tuck your kids in at night and you kiss them on their forehead, and you don't say, I am content with you.

You say, I love you.

You recognize that love is the chief emotion, the highest emotion.

The same is true with God.

There's nothing greater God can express towards us than his love.

He created the world to display his power in the world, of course that's true, but not only his power.

Above his power is his love.

He created the world to display to the objects of his creation, the objects of his mercy.

He made us to display his love.

God is truly love.

He doesn't have anger towards himself in the Trinity or tolerance towards himself in the Trinity.

He has love and he makes the world to share and to shed that love abroad in us.

What other word would you put here?

For God so tolerated the world?

For God has anger towards the world or wrath towards the world.

I mean, that is true, but that's not what you would put here.

The greatest expression of God towards us is his love.

God did not make the world because he was lonely and he needed someone to hang out with for eternity.

God made the world to display his love to the world.

And when he rescues people, even in the Old Testament, Israel, when he rescues Israel in the Old Testament and calls them, he enters a covenantal relationship with them by his love.

He enters into a relationship of love with them through covenant.

Israel will relate to God through their covenant, bound by love.

He tells Moses, I chose Israel not because they were strong or powerful and mighty, but because I loved them, I chose them.

He sets his love on whomever he pleases.

It is not a sign of a fountain's weakness that it overflows its banks.

It is a sign of its power.

It is not a sign of God's weakness that he creates people to whom he can show his love.

Is there anything else you would rather God reveal to you than his love?

Of course not.

It's the greatest affection imaginable.

The surprising thing in the verse is what comes next.

It's the greatest person with the greatest affection given to the worst recipients, to the world.

You'd be right so far if you're tracking for God so loved his son, for God so loved himself, for God so loved his spirit.

How about for God so loved the holy angels?

That would make sense a little bit.

But the world, I mean, the world is filled with people who are sinners.

People are the worst, aren't they?

Think of the worst people you know.

You know what they have in common?

They're all people.

Because of Adam's sin, the world is plagued by sin.

Every person who is born is born loving self and loving sin.

Yes, there might be even a little infant or childish innocence towards God or acceptance of who God is, but even that is tainted and marred by sin.

God did not display his love in John 3.16 to angels or animals, who, by the way, are both subject to sin.

He didn't display his love for creation, which groans under the weight of sin, but rather he displays his love for people who are the ones who are doing the sin.

People who are dismissive to Christ.

He displays his love to the world.

And that would be so shocking.

Remember, this is a conversation here.

The context of John chapter 3 is about God's love for Israel, about Jesus being the savior and the Messiah to Israel.

John 3 · chapter mention

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, and it says in John chapter 3, verse 1 that Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews, and he declares, We know, Rabbi, that you are a teacher sent from God because no one could do the signs you do, which he had just cleaned out the Jewish temple, purifying Jewish worship.

John 3:1

And so Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, says, It looks like you might be from God.

And Jesus rebukes him and says, You're the teacher of Israel and you can't figure this out.

I mean, that's the context here.

And so when Jesus says that God so loved, he doesn't say Israel, which is what you would expect.

He doesn't merely set his love on the descendants of Abraham.

He called Abraham out of the land of the Chaldeans to make a new people that would bring the Savior into the world, but his love is not designed to terminate on those people.

It's designed to go global.

Every language group.

Jesus is the savior of Israel, yes, but beyond that, he's the savior of the whole world.

There is not a language group anywhere in the world which does not have people on whom which God has set his love.

He is the savior of the world.

He has sheep, not just in Israel, but in sheep pens all over the world.

This is what's jarring in John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

Back in John chapter 1, John the Baptist was baptizing so that the proof of the Messiah could be seen in Israel, John 1.31 says.

John 1 · chapter mention

Nathanael in John 1 sees Jesus and calls him the King of Israel.

The crowd in John 12, on Palm Sunday, sings out Hosanna to the King of Israel.

They recognize Jesus as the Messiah promised to Israel, and Jesus says that he comes for something so much bigger than that.

It's going to be startling when you get to heaven and you see people from every tribe and every race.

That's what stands out in Revelation.

You're seen in of heaven in Revelation, there is people from every nation, every ethos, ethnic group, all over the world.

God's love is global, even though the nations and ethnic groups and language groups are all marred by sin.

He loves them anyway.

The greatest person, the greatest affection, the worst recipients leads to the greatest action that God gave.

That God gave from himself.

He didn't command, he gave.

I mean, what other verb would you want here?

Is there another one you would rather put in here?

No.

God so loved the world that he gave.

This is the expression of love.

You might tell a family member or your wife or your kids, I love you when you give them a gift.

It's a giving action.

God is, we know that I'll be omnis, that God is omniscient, that means he knows all things.

He's omnipresent, which means he is everywhere.

It's another way of saying he's omniscient, he knows all things everywhere.

He's omnipotent, which means he can do all things.

I love to add a fourth.

There's a fourth on me.

He's omnibenevolent.

He's always giving.

Which is such a blessing, isn't it?

Could you get anything from him if he didn't give it?

What could you earn from God?

Could you earn a relationship with him?

Of course not.

Could you climb a ladder to heaven to discover him?

No way.

Could you find him when you got there?

No.

Could you go to the bottom of the sea and find him?

No.

You cannot work your way to him.

You cannot earn a place with him.

He has told you, a man, what's required of you.

He's giving it to you.

He gives.

People in our nature, it's in our nature.

We want to be required to do something.

God tell me what to do in order to earn a place with you.

That is not how God's love is shown.

It is not shown through earning or working.

If it was shown through earning or working, then salvation would depend on man who wills or man who runs.

But it does not.

It depends upon God who gives generously.

God is omnibenevolent.

He gives himself.

He gives himself.

Well, that's getting ahead of myself.

The next is the greatest gift.

The greatest gift.

You have the greatest being, the greatest affection, the absolute worst recipients, the greatest action, and now the greatest gift.

God gives his only begotten son.

At this point, this sounds redundant, doesn't it?

But he doesn't give an angel.

He doesn't conjure Islam, send a prophet.

He sends himself.

The phrase here is the in Greek monogenessus, it means the only begotten.

Some English translations drop off the word only begotten there, and I don't even know if our few Bibles have it or not.

Sometimes they'll put a little footnote in there that says, you know, this translation doesn't use the word begotten because people don't use that word in English anymore.

I take that personally.

The word begotten means generated or to have something from its source.

It's a word that's used all over the Old Testament, the begats in the Old Testament, that children are begat from their father, mother's birth, father's begets.

That's the idea.

When it comes into Greek in the New Testament, it's this word for only begotten.

God only has one son that is begotten.

He has sons.

We're all sons and daughters of the Lord by creation or by virtue of our adoption.

Option, but he only has one son who is begotten.

And Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son.

What that means in relationship to the Father, the Father is always giving himself.

Remember, he's omnibenevolent.

He's always giving himself from eternity.

There's no start to his giving, it's an eternal giving.

All that he is, he shares completely and entirely with his son.

All of his power, all of his attributes, his nature, his power, everything about the Father is communicated in its entirety and in perfection to the Son in eternity past.

There's never a time where this starts, the Son wasn't born the Son.

If there was ever a time where the Father didn't have the Son, then the Father wouldn't be the Father.

He's an eternal father, which means he has an only begotten Son.

Eternal.

Now, this is what the Father gives.

Could you imagine a greater gift?

He gives himself, but he gives himself in the form of a person, the eternal son.

Only begotten Son here speaks of the Son before Mary, before his human birth.

In the hallways of heaven, the persons of the Trinity decree salvation to send themselves, and they send the Son.

The Son comes not in a package, not with angels writing a message in the sky, not as an angel.

The Son comes as a human being.

God gives himself as one of us.

Born to Mary, with a true human nature, a true human body.

And in his life, he fulfills everything God has ever required of a human being.

Jesus does all things perfectly, entirely keeps the law given to Israel, fulfills every part of it.

And then to demonstrate that he fulfills every human experience, he also dies a human death, even though the wages of sin is death.

Adam wouldn't have died had he not sinned.

Jesus never sinned, and yet he dies.

And he dies because he takes our sin, the sins of the world, upon himself.

And he suffers in our place and is buried, paying the penalty of sin, then descends down into hell.

That's who God gave.

He didn't give us good advice.

Hey, you want a better life?

Do these six things.

That's not what he gave.

He didn't give us rules, he didn't give us a process, he didn't give us four steps or three laws.

He gave himself.

He didn't give a nation, he didn't give a people, he didn't give a country or a concept.

He gave us himself.

He didn't give money and he didn't give wealth.

What more could he give?

You know, I remember back, like I said, the first time opening the Bible, I settled on John 3.16.

Had I chosen wrongly and ended up on 1 John 3.16, it would say almost the same thing.

I don't know where verse numbers came from exactly.

I mean I know the story, but they're not inspired.

And yeah, this is such an example of God's providence that 1 John 3.16 says basically the same thing as John 3.16.

That we know the love of God by this, that he laid down his life for us.

What more could he give?

He gave himself sinless and holy and undefiled as a ransom for the worst people.

That's the greatest gift.

Nothing greater could be given.

This leads to the greatest invitation.

That whoever believes in him, whoever believes in him, these are back to our staggering requirements.

The requirement for the reception of this gift from the Father is belief.

That's how you receive the gift.

You believe.

You don't receive it in your hands, you receive it in your heart, in your convictions, in your conscience, in your mind, in your soul.

You believe.

And it's a staggering, a staggering invitation here, because again, you would expect it to be, I don't know, different.

That God's greatest gift is giving himself, and the way you receive it is by earning it, working, trying to be a good person, keeping the sacraments, doing the commands, following the Ten Commandments.

I mean, something I have to do to earn this, please.

But that's not what it says.

He gives himself and he requires belief.

Not belief and run a marathon, praise God.

Not belief and manage your money well, not belief and raise your kids well, not belief and get the kids off to the right college or whatever, not believe and be a good person, just believe.

Now, specifically it says believe, and in Greek ice is the Greek word, which means into.

It's a different Greek word than the Greek word in, which means in.

Both of them are translated in English with the same word in, but prepositions in English, you know, it's like the squirrel with the log.

Prepositions are in the log, around the log, through the log, underlog, all that stuff.

In Greek, they're they're localized.

It's a sphere.

Believe in him, in means your belief is in Christ.

This is belief ice.

Belief into him, that is coming from outside and being put into.

There's all kinds of examples of this.

You can believe there's an elevator right out this door.

There is, you can believe that.

That's different than getting into it.

You can believe that airplanes are a thing and be related to a pilot or whatever.

That's different than getting onto the plane and flying away.

This is the second of those words here.

That whoever believes into him, that's the invitation.

You put your belief into him.

Not this intellectual acknowledgement, yes, the Bible is probably true.

Given the preponderance of evidence standard, I'd like to think that these testimonies, more or less, there's more, it's more likely true than untrue.

Not that kind of thing.

The Bible is filled with people who think that way too.

Nicodemus, for example.

Rabbi, we know you're a teacher, probably from God, because you do really crazy things.

People believe in Jesus because he multiplied the fish and the loaves, and Jesus does not trust them because he knows what's in their heart.

People believe in Jesus because they drank the wine that came from water.

That's not conversion.

That's not this kind of John 3.16 faith.

This kind of faith is placing your confidence, your assurance into Christ.

It's not a work, it's not something you merit, it's something you receive.

You believe into him.

Matthew 16, verse 24.

Matthew 16:24

If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

This is a reframing of that.

You believe into Christ.

Ho, Isaiah 55 says, Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.

Let you have no money, come, buy, eat, and drink.

Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Come, eat, drink, and live.

That's believing into Christ.

You say, I'm trusting you with my life.

It's not a money-back guarantee, like try Jesus for the next few weeks of your life and see if things don't get better.

No, it's counting the cost.

How much longer do you have to live?

Is it gonna be devoted to Christ?

That's the invitation.

You give your life to Christ.

It's the greatest invitation imaginable.

This leads to the greatest threat.

That you should not perish.

What happens when you put your faith in Christ?

Before Jesus even goes there, he starts with what happens if you reject this invitation.

You go to hell when you die.

The word perish in the Bible is speaking of eternal judgment.

You die a physical death, your soul stands before God for judgment, the books of your works are opened up and you're judged according to them.

It is not on a curve, and it is not on, well, most of the time I wasn't sinning.

I think of a traffic court analogy sometimes.

You get pulled over for 60 in a school zone.

For some of you, that's not hyperbolic.

And imagine standing before the judge and say, listen, Your Honor, it's like five miles to work.

The school zone is a quarter mile, so I was only going 60 in a school zone for a quarter mile of that trip.

The rest of the time I wasn't.

That's not even a plausible defense.

That's like the one who stands before God, who's lied and stolen, and lusted and committed all the sins.

But saying, Yeah, but I didn't do those all the time.

The wages of sin is death, physical and then spiritual death.

Hell is eternal.

And God is just.

And God's justice is displayed in his wrath and in his judgment.

The wages of sin is death, and people who sin deserve God's judgment.

And his judgment is forever.

Because if hell wasn't forever, then the grace and salvation wouldn't be infinite.

But it is eternal.

And it's warned about repeatedly in the Bible, and that's what befalls those who reject Christ.

That's the greatest threat imaginable.

Is there a bigger threat that God could what else could God threaten you with that is worse than that?

It's the most extreme threat imaginable.

That's not where the verse ends, because that's not where the Bible ends.

It's followed with the greatest reward.

You should not perish, but have eternal life.

That's what this is all about.

About having eternal life.

That's what the Bible is about.

The Bible is God's revelation, but it is not only about the power of God and the person of God, although it is about those things.

It's about how to enter, how human beings can enter a saving relationship with God.

The Bible obviously wasn't written to animals and it wasn't written to angels.

It's written to people.

And the point of the Bible is that you would believe in Jesus Christ and be freed from the wages of sin, have your sin forgiven, be rescued from hell, and instead have eternal life.

That's the point of the Bible.

And so that's why John 3.16 is the heart of the Bible in describing this as the reward.

When you believe into Christ, you receive this reward, eternal life.

You receive it here and now.

You believe into Christ, the Spirit dwells in your heart, forgives you of your sins, seals you, and gives you joy, opens your eyes spiritually speaking to understand the Word of God.

You walk with a new joy, a new delight, a new confidence, new convictions, new character.

All of that has changed in a moment when you believe in Christ.

And then when you die in this life, you close your eyes in this life, your body goes to the grave, your soul goes to heaven, only instead of judgment, your soul is spent in joy and union with Christ.

For eternally, you're experiencing eternal life.

And then at some point in the future, the Lord will return with your soul, raise your physical body from the grave, bring the two together, and then you, body and soul, will worship Jesus forever and ever and ever, without decay, without destruction, with no boredom, with no decay in your life or body at all, but eternally blissful joy worship forever.

That's eternal life.

And you can experience it now by believing in Christ.

It's not something you can lose.

If you could lose it, this wouldn't be the greatest invitation ever, would it be?

You can have salvation for a year, see how you do.

That's not a good invitation.

This is an invitation to have your life and your eternity changed.

Is there a single word in this verse that could get more extreme?

Is there a single way to make this invitation better or more urgent?

Something better that could be offered?

A longer life, more money, make you taller or something?

I don't know.

Nothing else comes even close to the invitation that's here.

It's the most serious and sober invitation you'll ever be offered.

It's right here in the heart of the Bible.

Lord, I'm thankful for your invitation for people to come to you, to believe in you, to have their lives changed.

I pray for anyone here this morning that has never believed in you.

I pray this morning they would place their faith into you.

They would trust you with their life, with their soul, with their eternity.

We're grateful for the way you offer new life through faith in Christ.

We give you thanks for this promise in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, iBC.church.

If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, D.C., please go to TMS.edu.

Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.

area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.

I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.

But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.

Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.