John 3:16-18: God Reconciling the World to Himself
1. Introduction
a.
We finished
Colossians last week. Next time we’ll
start a new series.
b.
I think John 3:16
has almost become cliché.
c.
Reformed
Christians seem to avoid this passage unless we’re trying to dispute what other
people believe about it. Have you ever
heard a sermon on it? We need to go back
to the basics periodically, and we’ll find they’re very deep.
d.
John 3:16 is so
simple, and yet so profound. MH: “Here
is the Gospel indeed, good news, the best that ever came from heaven to earth.”
e.
Because everyone
knows this verse, we often hear it or read it without thinking about it. We rob ourselves of the richness of this
passage. We need to stop and meditate.
f.
Prayer
2. Context
a.
Verse 1: Jesus
meets with Nicodemus, a Pharisee who is secretly intrigued by Jesus.
b.
Verse 2: He
acknowledges that Jesus is really from God.
c.
Verse 3: Jesus,
seemingly out of nowhere, confronts Nicodemus with man’s problem. Man cannot even see God’s Kingdom without
being born again—regenerated. Why?
i.
Because of the
Fall.
1.
Colossians 1:21:
“And you…were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.”
2.
Ephesians 2:1-2:
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,
following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.”
3.
Romans 5:12:
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through
sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”
ii.
The Fall has
separated us from God.
iii.
So, how can
sinful man be reunited to a holy God?
A.W. Pink: “How can God deliver him from the penalty of His broken Law
without compromising His holiness and going back upon His word that He will ‘by
no means clear the guilty’?”
3. Verse 16: The Solution to the Problem
a.
“For God so loved
the world.” This first phrase shows us
the root cause of our salvation—God’s love.
God is the prime mover. His love
is the only reason we have hope.
i.
How can we
explain this love? Adam Clarke: “Such a
love as that which induced God to give his only begotten son to die for the
world could not be described: Jesus Christ does not attempt it.”
ii.
Love=Agapao,
which is that selfless, sacrificial love.
It is love that gives of itself.
It is not based upon anything that the one loved is or does.
b.
Whom did God
love?
i.
The world. Commentators have disagreed over what this
means.
1.
Every individual
human being ever born.
2.
The entire
Creation.
3.
The world system
that is opposed to God.
ii.
Strong’s
definition of kosmos: “World; earth, world system, whole universe;
adornment. In some contexts, the world
is simply the place where people live, in other contexts (especially in John),
the world is a system opposed to God.”
iii.
1 John 2:15: “Do
not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
iv.
Our definition of
world largely depends on whether or not the quote of Christ ends at Verse 15,
as some scholars believe, or Verse 21, as most scholars believe. I believe the quote extends to Verse 21. This is not John speaking, but Christ.
v.
Context: Jesus
was speaking to a Pharisee—a Jew of Jews.
The Jews believed that the Messiah would come to judge the Gentile
nations, which the Jews often referred to as the world. As a Jew, Nicodemus thinks that God is
sending the Messiah to punish the world because He hates it. Jesus says, “God loved the world!”
vi.
Jesus, by saying kosmos, is referring to mankind as a
whole, not as individuals, but all nationalities of men—specifically Gentiles—those
who were not Jews.
c.
God’s love was a
giving love. It moved Him to
action. What did His love cause Him to
do for us? “That He gave His only Son.”
i.
Once again, how
can we describe such love?
ii.
Parents can
understand it a little better than most.
They have experienced the indescribable love for a child.
iii.
Illustration: Can
you imagine giving the life of your child for someone else—let alone a
criminal?
iv.
We must never
forget the love Christ had in being willing to come. A.W. Pink: “In the last place, it was amazing
grace that the Son was willing to perform such a work for us, without whose
consent the justice of God could not have exacted the debt from him. And His grace is the most eminent in that He
knew beforehand all the unspeakable humiliation and unparalleled suffering
which He would encounter in the discharge of this work, yet that did not deter
Him; nor was He unapprised of the character of those for whom He did it-the
guilty, the ungodly, the hell-deserving; yet He shrank not back.”
d.
Why did He send
Jesus? “That whoever believes in him
should not perish, but have eternal life.”
i.
“Whoever”—This
call is offered to anyone of any class, race, age, or gender. No respect of persons (Acts 10:34).
ii.
Jesus came to
save us from perishing. Perish=apollymi
(verb form of Apollyon), which means to destroy, to kill, to cause to lose; to
die or perish. Jesus came to save us
from destruction/hell.
1.
Jesus described hell
in Mark 8:43 and 47-48: “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled
than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire…And if your eye
causes you to sin, tear it out. It is
better for you to enter the kingdom
of God
2.
Matthew 25:30:
“And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.”
3.
Luke 16:23
describes it as a place of torment.
4.
God sent Jesus so
that we would not have to go there.
5.
Jesus came to be
our substitutionary atonement. He came
to take our place, just as the animals did in OT sacrifices.
6.
2 Corinthians
5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we
might become the righteousness of God.”
iii.
It was not only
to save us from perishing that Christ came, but to give us eternal life. What is eternal life?
1.
Reconciliation to
God. John 17:3: “And this is eternal
life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have
sent.” God has made Himself known to us
and made it possible for us to spend eternity with Him.
2.
Adoption as God’s
children. John 3:12: “But to all who did
receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of
God.
3.
Because we are
children, we also receive an inheritance.
Romans 8:16-17: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that
we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow
heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be
glorified with him.”
4. Verse 17: Clarification
a.
Jesus makes it
clear what wasn’t the reason God had sent Him—to condemn.
b.
Once again, the
Jews thought the Messiah was coming to punish all the other nations of the
world. They misunderstood the nature of
the Messianic prophecies.
c.
They thought that
their position as God’s special people was untouchable. They were wrong.
d.
Jesus says, “No, I
came to save the world.”
5. Verse 18: Two Kinds of People
a.
There is no
neutrality.
b.
Those who believe—those
who have faith in Christ.
c.
What is belief/faith?
i.
Knowledge
ii.
Assent
iii.
Trust
d.
Those who do not
believe. If you don’t believe, you are
condemned already.
6. Application
a.
God has loved us
with an inexpressible love. He
demonstrated this love by sending Jesus.
1 John 4:7-10. This is not
because of our inherent worth, but despite our worthlessness. Romans 5:8: “But God shows his love for us in
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
b.
By sending Jesus,
God also demonstrated how much He hates sin.
God could not simply ignore sin.
He is perfectly righteous and just.
A.W. Pink: “One of God’s perfections is not exercised to the injury of
any of the others, but all of them shine forth with equal clearness in the plan
which Divine wisdom devised. Mercy at
the expense of justice over-ridden would not suit the Divine government, and
justice enforced to the exclusion of mercy would not befit the Divine
character. The problem which no finite
intelligence could solve was how both might be exercised in the sinner’s
salvation.” This was accomplished by
Christ receiving the punishment we justly deserved. Romans 3:26: “It [sending Christ] was to show
his righteousness a the present time, so that he might be just and the
justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
c.
Those who have
been reconciled to God have a duty to spread the news of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20: “All this [we being
made new creatures] is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was
reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them,
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God
making his appeal through us. We implore
you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
d.
We have an
ultimatum set before us: believe, or be condemned. I implore you, be reconciled.
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