God So Loved
02/17/08
Lent 2
John 3:1-17
Dear friends in Christ,
I just read for you what some have called the “Hope Diamond” verse of scripture. Did you hear it? Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham, calls it “the North Star of the Bible. If you align your life with it, “She says,” you can find The Way home.” Martin Luther calls it “the gospel in miniature.” If there is only one scripture verse you commit to memory, this should be the one. In this one verse is summarized the entire Christian faith, the hope for the world. It is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.” With help from author and Pastor Max Lucado, who recently published the best selling book, “3:16, The Numbers of Hope,” I’d like to focus this morning’s message on this one verse.
It’s always important to consider the context in which any verse is written. What’s going on around the verse? What leads to the words being written or spoken? In this case, the context is one of the great encounters one man has with Jesus. For the next three Sundays, we’re going to see other great encounters in the gospel lessons, so I hope you come to learn about those as well. But today the encounter is between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus.
Who is this Nicodemus? He is a very important Jewish religious leader of the day. His title is Pharisee, a scholar, one who paid particular attention to the Jewish law that guided the religion of the day. Think of a Bishop or perhaps a seminary professor today. This was a man, who along with other Pharisees, conversed about God. They discussed reaching God, pleasing God, appeasing God. This is what they did- they were the religious pros.
Nicodemus had heard about Jesus. So had nearly everyone else, since Jesus had recently thrown out the moneychangers in the temple, an act guaranteed to get the Pharisees attention. Nicodemus was curious about this rabble raising rabbi so he did what none of the other Pharisees was willing to do. He went to Jesus, at night, secretly, probably because he feared what his peers might say if he went openly during the day.
Nicodemus, the well prepared Pharisee, approaches Jesus and tells him what he knows. “We know that you are a teacher who has come from God,” he says.
Immediately, Jesus cuts to the chase with this curious Pharisee. He doesn’t make small talk. He doesn’t acknowledge Nicodemus’s credentials or authority. He simply says, “No one can see the kingdom of God, without being born from above.” Other translations use the words “ unless one is born again.”
When we drive to Jackson Hole in Wyoming, we go over Togwotee Mountain Pass. The road passes a number of times over the Continental Divide, which is marked with highway signs. Water on the east side flows east. Water on the west, flows west. It’s one way or the other, no in between.
These words of Jesus are like a continental divide in scripture. On one side stands Nicodemus. He has learned his whole life that reaching God is about good efforts, sincere gestures, and hard work. Do what the law says, that’s how you attain heaven. Today we might say, “God helps those who help themselves.” Our effort plus God’s effort brings the results we want. Makes some sense. A lot of people think that way.
But on the other side stands Jesus. His response? Your best won’t do. Your works won’t do. Keeping the law is not the answer. Unless you are born from above, born again, you will never see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus is confused. What is this man talking about? You can’t rewind the tape of your life. There are no do overs. This isn’t like golf. If your tee shot sails off into the woods, you can’t tee up another one and hope to put it in the fairway. You can’t go back to the maternity ward and start over, although many of perhaps wish we could.
To which Jesus replies, this is the Spirit’s work, not ours. The Spirit creates newborn hearts, fit for heaven. Just as it is the mother that does all the work in birthing the child; hurting, agonizing, pushing, and delivering, so also it is the spirit that does all the work in delivering a newborn heart in us. Nicodemus, and everyone else at the time, thought some kind of self-fix was possible. Jesus said no. God handles the task, by the work of the Spirit, from start to finish. One does not ultimately receive a relationship with God and the hope of heaven by simply trying harder to do better. One receives that relationship by receiving the gift a new heart, a spiritual rebirth made possible only by the Holy Spirit of God.
Have you ever been simply stunned by receiving some news that you weren’t expecting or maybe weren’t ready for? Maybe it was some bad news, or it could have been very good news, but in any case, you didn’t know just quite how to react? I still remember seeing with Melissa that Early Pregnancy Test indicating that we were going to be parents for the first time. This was good news, but I was stunned nonetheless. Wow, this is really going to be life changing.
That’s the impression I get from Nicodemus after he’s listened to Jesus. He’s stunned. He’s just had the rug pulled out from under him. All the assumptions he made about God and attaining heaven have come undone. He scratches his head and says, “How can these things be?”
It is at this point, that Jesus leads Nicodemus to the Hope Diamond. How can these things be? Here’s how. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.” And in these words there are four facets of this diamond that particularly sparkle for Nicodemus and for us.
The first is, “God loves.” God loves the world. These are amazing, hopeful words. God loves this place. Even though some abuse and take the lives of innocent children, God loves. Even though a shooter opens fire on a classroom of innocent college students, God loves. Even though terrorists blow themselves up and take the lives of innocent people, even though war rages, even though the poor go hungry, God loves. God certainly could, and perhaps should, punish the world. But that’s not what 3:16 says. God loves the world. The word for love is agape, unconditional love, a decision to love, and to keep on loving, and not to condemn.
They were married over 50 years. The last 10 were marred by her dementia. The husband did the best he could to care for her at home, but she grew sicker, weaker, older. Finally he admitted her to full time care.
His devotion did not end, however. “I arrive at 6:15AM,” he beamed. “You’d think I was on the payroll. I feed her, bathe her, and stay with her. I will until one of us dies.” That’s agape love. That’s how God feels about us and the world.
God loves. That’s the first facet. God gives, that’s the second. And what does God give? A new set of orders to follow? A new set of rules to obey? Not at all. God gives his son, his one and only son.
Only Jesus the God’s genes or genetic make-up. The familiar translation, “only begotten son” conveys this truth. He alone shares God’s DNA, God’s essence. Every quality we attribute to God, we can attribute to Jesus.
This only son is then given up for the world on the cross. Who among us can begin to imagine giving up willingly, a son or daughter, to death on the cross? We can’t. But God so loved the world, that God did that, to save us from our sin.
A Chinese Christian, before her Baptism, was asked a question to ensure she understood the meaning of the cross. “Did Jesus have any sin?” the pastor inquired. “Yes,” she replied. Troubled by her answer, he repeated the question. “Yes, he had sin,” she answered again. The leader set out to correct her because of course, Jesus never sinned. But before he could, she spoke up again. “He had mine.” And, of course, she was right. God gave his only son, to take our sin.
God loves. God gives. We believe is the third facet. “Everyone who believes in him,” says the verse. We believe. This good news of God’s love for the world and gift of God’s son is for everyone. All that we do is believe. Think of any example of trust that you’d like. That’s all we do. We trust this gift.
Lucado gives the example of Bible translator John G. Paton who was struggling to find an appropriate verb for believe to use with the people of the New Hebrides islands. He came across a solution while hunting with a tribesman. The two men bagged a deer and carried it on a pole along a steep mountain path to Paton’s home. When they reached the veranda, both men dropped the load and plopped into the porch chairs. As they did so, the native exclaimed in his native language, “My, it is good to stretch yourself our here and rest.” Paton immediately realized he had the translation for believe he was seeking. “Stretch yourself out and rest.” “For God so loved the world, that everyone that stretches himself out on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Faith- to stretch out on Christ and rest.
God loves. God gives. We believe. And the fourth facet- We live. This is the great and final promise. We do not perish to hell, forever apart from God. Rather, we live to God eternally. God prepares a place for us, a place so wonderful we can’t even begin to imagine. It will be a place of reunion, a place of forgiveness for whatever past wrongs, a place without suffering, a place of peace. And we don’t have to wait until we die to begin to experience this. When we believe now, we begin to experience the hope and joy of heaven.
God loves. God gives. We believe. We live. Those are the four facets of the Hope Diamond of scripture. When Martin Luther was dying, severe headaches left him bedfast and pain struck. He was offered a medication to relieve his discomfort. He declined and explained, “My best prescription for head and heart is that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The best prescription for head and heart. It’s a dose I expect we could all use today, and every day. May the words of John 3:16, first spoken to the Pharisee Nicodemus, be for you good news and your guiding star. Amen (Much of this message and the illustrations use dare from Max Lucado’s book, 3:16, The Numbers of Hope, Thomas Nelson Press, 2007. I recommend it for you reading.
John 3:1-17
Dear friends in Christ,
I just read for you what some have called the “Hope Diamond” verse of scripture. Did you hear it? Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham, calls it “the North Star of the Bible. If you align your life with it, “She says,” you can find The Way home.” Martin Luther calls it “the gospel in miniature.” If there is only one scripture verse you commit to memory, this should be the one. In this one verse is summarized the entire Christian faith, the hope for the world. It is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.” With help from author and Pastor Max Lucado, who recently published the best selling book, “3:16, The Numbers of Hope,” I’d like to focus this morning’s message on this one verse.
It’s always important to consider the context in which any verse is written. What’s going on around the verse? What leads to the words being written or spoken? In this case, the context is one of the great encounters one man has with Jesus. For the next three Sundays, we’re going to see other great encounters in the gospel lessons, so I hope you come to learn about those as well. But today the encounter is between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus.
Who is this Nicodemus? He is a very important Jewish religious leader of the day. His title is Pharisee, a scholar, one who paid particular attention to the Jewish law that guided the religion of the day. Think of a Bishop or perhaps a seminary professor today. This was a man, who along with other Pharisees, conversed about God. They discussed reaching God, pleasing God, appeasing God. This is what they did- they were the religious pros.
Nicodemus had heard about Jesus. So had nearly everyone else, since Jesus had recently thrown out the moneychangers in the temple, an act guaranteed to get the Pharisees attention. Nicodemus was curious about this rabble raising rabbi so he did what none of the other Pharisees was willing to do. He went to Jesus, at night, secretly, probably because he feared what his peers might say if he went openly during the day.
Nicodemus, the well prepared Pharisee, approaches Jesus and tells him what he knows. “We know that you are a teacher who has come from God,” he says.
Immediately, Jesus cuts to the chase with this curious Pharisee. He doesn’t make small talk. He doesn’t acknowledge Nicodemus’s credentials or authority. He simply says, “No one can see the kingdom of God, without being born from above.” Other translations use the words “ unless one is born again.”
When we drive to Jackson Hole in Wyoming, we go over Togwotee Mountain Pass. The road passes a number of times over the Continental Divide, which is marked with highway signs. Water on the east side flows east. Water on the west, flows west. It’s one way or the other, no in between.
These words of Jesus are like a continental divide in scripture. On one side stands Nicodemus. He has learned his whole life that reaching God is about good efforts, sincere gestures, and hard work. Do what the law says, that’s how you attain heaven. Today we might say, “God helps those who help themselves.” Our effort plus God’s effort brings the results we want. Makes some sense. A lot of people think that way.
But on the other side stands Jesus. His response? Your best won’t do. Your works won’t do. Keeping the law is not the answer. Unless you are born from above, born again, you will never see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus is confused. What is this man talking about? You can’t rewind the tape of your life. There are no do overs. This isn’t like golf. If your tee shot sails off into the woods, you can’t tee up another one and hope to put it in the fairway. You can’t go back to the maternity ward and start over, although many of perhaps wish we could.
To which Jesus replies, this is the Spirit’s work, not ours. The Spirit creates newborn hearts, fit for heaven. Just as it is the mother that does all the work in birthing the child; hurting, agonizing, pushing, and delivering, so also it is the spirit that does all the work in delivering a newborn heart in us. Nicodemus, and everyone else at the time, thought some kind of self-fix was possible. Jesus said no. God handles the task, by the work of the Spirit, from start to finish. One does not ultimately receive a relationship with God and the hope of heaven by simply trying harder to do better. One receives that relationship by receiving the gift a new heart, a spiritual rebirth made possible only by the Holy Spirit of God.
Have you ever been simply stunned by receiving some news that you weren’t expecting or maybe weren’t ready for? Maybe it was some bad news, or it could have been very good news, but in any case, you didn’t know just quite how to react? I still remember seeing with Melissa that Early Pregnancy Test indicating that we were going to be parents for the first time. This was good news, but I was stunned nonetheless. Wow, this is really going to be life changing.
That’s the impression I get from Nicodemus after he’s listened to Jesus. He’s stunned. He’s just had the rug pulled out from under him. All the assumptions he made about God and attaining heaven have come undone. He scratches his head and says, “How can these things be?”
It is at this point, that Jesus leads Nicodemus to the Hope Diamond. How can these things be? Here’s how. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.” And in these words there are four facets of this diamond that particularly sparkle for Nicodemus and for us.
The first is, “God loves.” God loves the world. These are amazing, hopeful words. God loves this place. Even though some abuse and take the lives of innocent children, God loves. Even though a shooter opens fire on a classroom of innocent college students, God loves. Even though terrorists blow themselves up and take the lives of innocent people, even though war rages, even though the poor go hungry, God loves. God certainly could, and perhaps should, punish the world. But that’s not what 3:16 says. God loves the world. The word for love is agape, unconditional love, a decision to love, and to keep on loving, and not to condemn.
They were married over 50 years. The last 10 were marred by her dementia. The husband did the best he could to care for her at home, but she grew sicker, weaker, older. Finally he admitted her to full time care.
His devotion did not end, however. “I arrive at 6:15AM,” he beamed. “You’d think I was on the payroll. I feed her, bathe her, and stay with her. I will until one of us dies.” That’s agape love. That’s how God feels about us and the world.
God loves. That’s the first facet. God gives, that’s the second. And what does God give? A new set of orders to follow? A new set of rules to obey? Not at all. God gives his son, his one and only son.
Only Jesus the God’s genes or genetic make-up. The familiar translation, “only begotten son” conveys this truth. He alone shares God’s DNA, God’s essence. Every quality we attribute to God, we can attribute to Jesus.
This only son is then given up for the world on the cross. Who among us can begin to imagine giving up willingly, a son or daughter, to death on the cross? We can’t. But God so loved the world, that God did that, to save us from our sin.
A Chinese Christian, before her Baptism, was asked a question to ensure she understood the meaning of the cross. “Did Jesus have any sin?” the pastor inquired. “Yes,” she replied. Troubled by her answer, he repeated the question. “Yes, he had sin,” she answered again. The leader set out to correct her because of course, Jesus never sinned. But before he could, she spoke up again. “He had mine.” And, of course, she was right. God gave his only son, to take our sin.
God loves. God gives. We believe is the third facet. “Everyone who believes in him,” says the verse. We believe. This good news of God’s love for the world and gift of God’s son is for everyone. All that we do is believe. Think of any example of trust that you’d like. That’s all we do. We trust this gift.
Lucado gives the example of Bible translator John G. Paton who was struggling to find an appropriate verb for believe to use with the people of the New Hebrides islands. He came across a solution while hunting with a tribesman. The two men bagged a deer and carried it on a pole along a steep mountain path to Paton’s home. When they reached the veranda, both men dropped the load and plopped into the porch chairs. As they did so, the native exclaimed in his native language, “My, it is good to stretch yourself our here and rest.” Paton immediately realized he had the translation for believe he was seeking. “Stretch yourself out and rest.” “For God so loved the world, that everyone that stretches himself out on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Faith- to stretch out on Christ and rest.
God loves. God gives. We believe. And the fourth facet- We live. This is the great and final promise. We do not perish to hell, forever apart from God. Rather, we live to God eternally. God prepares a place for us, a place so wonderful we can’t even begin to imagine. It will be a place of reunion, a place of forgiveness for whatever past wrongs, a place without suffering, a place of peace. And we don’t have to wait until we die to begin to experience this. When we believe now, we begin to experience the hope and joy of heaven.
God loves. God gives. We believe. We live. Those are the four facets of the Hope Diamond of scripture. When Martin Luther was dying, severe headaches left him bedfast and pain struck. He was offered a medication to relieve his discomfort. He declined and explained, “My best prescription for head and heart is that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The best prescription for head and heart. It’s a dose I expect we could all use today, and every day. May the words of John 3:16, first spoken to the Pharisee Nicodemus, be for you good news and your guiding star. Amen (Much of this message and the illustrations use dare from Max Lucado’s book, 3:16, The Numbers of Hope, Thomas Nelson Press, 2007. I recommend it for you reading.