Today I continue our series “Pop Verses.” We are taking a closer look at some of the most popular Bible verses. We are going to find out why they are so popular and how they apply to our lives.
What you might discover is that some of these verses don’t mean what you think they mean or they mean a lot more than you think they mean. You see, quite often our favorites verses are just that – they’re verses. They’re not read in light of the passage in which they appear. This can lead to a misunderstanding about the true meaning of the verse. I believe this series is going to give you a lot of food for thought about these popular verses.
Today we are going to focus on what is probably the most well known Bible verse of all time. Let’s say it together:
“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.” –John 3:16
Martin Luther called this verse, “The gospel in miniature.” In just 27 words it sums up the gospel. It has become the mantra of our faith.
But this verse has a problem. It suffers from overexposure. It has been read and quoted so often that many of us no longer feel the power of it. For some of us, its luster has faded. Perhaps for some of you this verse is connected to bad evangelism. Some obnoxious fire breathing preacher or arrogant friend quoted it trying to cajole you into becoming a Christian. Ever since then you see this verse saying, “Turn or burn!” Or you see a well meaning but tacky guy holding up John 3:16 behind a golfer on television. You may have even seen John 3:16 on Tim Tebow’s shadow stickers below his eyes!
Again, this verse suffers from exposure. As a result, its impact and meaning is diminished. So my goal in preparing this sermon this week was to feel the power of it again – to push aside all the baggage attached to it and experience the verse anew. I prayed that God would penetrate my heart with the message of John 3:16 so I could then share with all of you.
God answered my prayer. I experienced the penetrating power of this verse again. When I did I got in touch again with something so simple yet so profound that it healed me of old hurts and wounds. It gave me peace again – peace with myself, peace with God and peace with others. It set me free from heavy things holding me back.
I believe if you allow yourself to experience its truth today it can set you free too! Whether you are a Christian seeking renewal or a skeptic seeing something more in life the truth of today’s verse can you set you free from whatever is holding you back in life. It can give you the peace you are craving.
Jesus spoke about the freedom we crave in the 8th chapter of John. Let’s take a look:
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” –John 8:31-32
I don’t know what you need to be set free from today but I do know that Jesus can set you free from it. Maybe it is shame. Maybe it’s guilt. Maybe it’s resentment and bitterness. Maybe it’s a bad habit. Maybe it’s hatred. Maybe it’s anxiety. Maybe it’s some heavy burden that you have been carrying. Whatever it is, the truth of Jesus can set you free.
Underneath all of our cravings and trivial pursuits and unrest is a longing for a truth that will set us free.
And oh I how our world needs to be set free! The world needs to be set free from hateful political rhetoric – set free from evil ideologies – set free from prejudice, anger and violence – set free from greed – set free from the oppression of the least, the last and the lost! If you have something you want to be set free from, can I get an amen?
But what is that truth that will set us free? Jesus said we will know the truth and once we know the truth it will set us free. What is it?
I believe John 3:16 contains the truth that will set us free. I want us to take a closer look at this verse so we can expose ourselves to this truth. You see, the context of this verse is all about someone seeking to be free. His name was Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee and a leader of the Jews. He was a religious man who followed the law rigorously. His whole life he sought to earn God’s love and grace through following a bunch of religious rules. 619 of them to be exact.
Maybe you can relate to Nicodemus. Perhaps you’ve always seen faith and religion as a bunch of rules and “thou shalt nots.” Maybe you grew up in a religious home or school that beat that idea into you and it is hard to break free from it.
Nicodemus was tired of religion as rule following and wanted to be set free too. He heard Jesus teach and preach and his heart was warmed. He sensed something different about Jesus. He was unlike any other rabbi he had ever known or heard. He had this overwhelming love about him. Jesus talked about love and faith in a way that moved him.
Nicodemus had to experience the truth Jesus was preaching about. He wanted to be set free from all the rules, laws, shame and judgment. But it was tricky because Nicodemaus was part of a group that hated Jesus. Jesus swallowed up all their religious rules with the greatest commandment and they were not too pleased with that. So Nicodemus met Jesus at night so no one would see him.
In the third chapter of John Nicodemus asked Jesus some questions about how to be set free. Jesus told him he needed to be born from above. This confused Nicodemus, so Jesus told him that he was going to be lifted up for all the world to see and then he would understand. Jesus was referring to his crucifixion. Jesus believed that once Nicodemus saw him on that cross and opened his heart he would experience the truth that would set him free.
It is then that the gospel of John reveals the truth that would sets us free:
“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.” –John 3:16
Let’s break down this powerful verse. As we do we will experience the freedom we crave.
“For God so LOVED”
Hear this word! See this word! Experience this word! God loves you. So many people see God as a power hungry deity who demands obedience and submission. Some think God is not satisfied until we are groveling and feel terrible about ourselves and beg and crawl our way to him. That is not the God revealed in Jesus Christ. And that is not the God revealed in John 3:16. God loves you. You are his child. He created you. He wants you to be happy and whole. How much does God love you exactly? Take a look:
“For God SO loved”
To me this is one of the most overlooked words of this verse. Go SO! God SO loved. God so loved the world. Not just America. Not just Britain. Not just Mexico. God SO loves. God yearns for us. He loves us SO much! My mom used to say, “Charley, I love you so.”
I like what Max Lucado says. God loves us so much that if “he had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.”
But for God it wasn’t just lip service. God showed that deep love for us.
“He GAVE”
God held nothing back in demonstrating his love for us. God wooed us back to him by giving us his son. Now this is when this verse gets tricky for some of us. “Okay, first I hear that Jesus is God. Now this verse tells me that Jesus is God’s son and God sent him to die for us. Which is it?” If you have ever felt that way you are not alone.
I am going to make it plain and easy to understand. It’s all about the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We don’t believe in three gods. The Trinity is a way of expressing the three predominant ways God expresses himself in the world. God is defined by what God does. God is the Father who creates, the Holy Spirit who guides and sustains and the Son who is with us and loves us intimately. So one way to understand this verse is that on the cross we see God giving the most vulnerable part of himself to us. As Philippians says, God “emptied himself” to us in Christ. It was the ultimate display of love.
In this way the cross is God’s poetry of love. See the cross as poetry, not as a legal event. On the cross God in Christ is saying, “You want to know how much I love you? I love you this much.”
“Everyone”
The verse says “everyone who believes in him.” God so loved the “world.” It doesn’t say “God so loved the perfect people” or “God so loved the religious people.” It doesn’t say “God so loved the United Methodists,” as wonderful as we are. It doesn’t say “God so loved the bold and the beautiful.” God loves everyone, the entire world he created.
God loves and reaches out to everyone. This flies in the face of many who believe they have a monopoly on God. So many Christians want to put a limit on God’s love. They claim that God’s love only goes so far for people. No, God’s love is limitless. His grace is within everyone, and that grace calls everyone to be in relationship with him.
“BELIEVES in him”
This is probably the most misunderstood word in this verse. Believe does not mean intellectual assent. It doesn’t mean you have done a bunch of mental gymnastics and rationally believe there is a God. Jesus said that even demons believe in God. Besides, there is a mystery to God that we could never wrap our finites minds around. See “believe” in this verse as “invest.” Whenever you invest your heart, life and actions in God and his love you will experience life as you were destined to live it. Take a look:
“Will not perish, but have ETERNAL LIFE.”
When you invest your life into God and his love you will not perish, which means you will not live a meaningless and purposeless existence. You will live an “eternal life.” That literally translates “life of God.” It is a life filled with joy, hope, peace, strength, meaning, purpose and adventure. It is eternal in its duration but it begins now!
So I believe John 3:16 can be summed up in five words. This is the truth that will set you free today!
God is crazy about you.
Turn to your neighbor and say, “God is crazy about you.” Augustine said, “God loves each one of us as if there is only one of us to love.” God held nothing back to show you how much he loves you and that he wants you whole. He wants you to live life with purpose and meaning.
Believe it or not, convincing people of this is one of my toughest jobs as a pastor. Sometimes it feels as if I cannot preach on the love of God enough! There are so many voices out in the world tearing people down. There are so many people with toxic faith presenting God as an angry judge. So I will preach in season and out of season about the love of God!
That is my goal as a preacher – that people would experience the transforming love of God wherever they are in their journey. I don’t want people to hear my voice speaking, but the voice of God speaking his love into them. That is what motivates me as a preacher. That is all I ever want to do.
We need to get back to experiencing God and his love. We need to get back to feeling how crazy God is about us. It strikes me that in the church we spend a lot of time talking about what we think about God, about what we understand about God. We meet in small groups and discuss what we think and understand about the Bible and our faith. And this is great. We must have a thinking faith. Without it we are doomed to have a destructive theology. But what I don’t hear often enough in the church is people talking about their experience of God. A big part of our tradition as Wesleyans is talking about experiencing God. After all, Wesley’s pivotal experience of faith is feeling his heart “strangely warmed” by the love and grace of God. Early Methodists got together and asked, “How is it with your soul?” (I am grateful to Bob Farr for helping me to see this reality).
We need to get back in touch with our personal experiences of God. Find a person or group to talk to about your experience of the love, grace and power of God. The more you do this, the more you will be aware of how much God loves you. This awareness and experience will empower you and set you free.
I know some of you need to experience God’s love in the worst way. You have been beat up, put down, knocked out, and push aside by people in life. Perhaps you are thinking, “Does anyone love me? Does anyone care? Does anyone understand? Does anyone know how I feel?” And Christ reaches out to you with nail scarred hands and says, “Oh, I do. I love you. I understand you. I care about you. I am crazy about you. I am here to love and empower you.” “For God SO love the world…”
I remember preaching at a youth camp several years ago. The worship service went really late. I didn’t get up to preach until about 11p.m. It didn’t help that I had the flu but it was the last service of the week and I had to finish. I don’t know what I said. I was so sick. I was just trying to get through it. I thought it was the worst sermon I ever delivered.
After the service a teenage girl approached me. She looked very angry. She said, “I have to find out if something is true.” I replied, “What’s that?” She said, “You mentioned tonight that God loves me. Do you believe that? I don’t believe anyone has ever loved me. My dad left me and my mother abused me, and I moved from one institution to another. I’ve been sexually abused, neglected, and you are telling me that God loves me?”
I looked into her eyes and said, “That’s right. I know this for certain. God loves you. You want to know how I know? God got up on a cross and said, ‘This is how much I love you.’” She paused for a moment and tears began rolling down her cheeks. Then she said, “Well, if God loves me, then nothing else matters. If God loves me, that’s all that matters.” I said, “Sweetheart, you have just learned something it takes most people a lifetime to learn.”
God is crazy about you. Open your heart to his love. It will set you free.