John 3:16

Years ago there was this guy that always seemed to be in the TV cameras viewfinder at football games. He had a wild multi-colored afro and was holding a makeshift sign with "John 3:16" scrawled on it. Do you remember him? I believe that in his own weird way he was trying to get the message out. But what was the message? 

John 3:16 is without doubt the most recognized verse in the Bible. Most Sunday school kids learn John 3:16 before any other verse. It is an important verse that contains a crucial truth of the Christian faith. We learn it early and can say it so fast that we mostly breeze through it without thinking. So let's think about it. 

Here is the whole verse, John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

As with all of scripture, John 3:16 has a context. Many scholars believe that this verse was not spoken by Jesus but was a commentary by John. In chapter three of John's gospel Jesus talks with an important man, Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a very religious man. He had memorized great portions of the Bible. Yet he didn't know the very first step in becoming a child of God. Jesus didn't wait for him to ask but told him right at the beginning of their conversation, in verse John 3:3 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. "

 

For a person to become one of God's children, they need to be born. That makes sense. 

Were you born? That is a silly question right? Of course you were born. All people that are alive today were born. I have a friend who doesn't know who their father was. But my friend had a father because she is alive. Being a born is normal. 

The same is true for being a Christian. To be a part of God's family you must be born. But wait. Jesus said "you must be born again". How many of you have been born two times? What did Jesus mean by what he said here? 

He goes on to explain in verse five, John 3:5 Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.

We see the two births here. Being born of water is not baptism. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us that baptism is a part of salvation. So, what is being born of water? It is the normal physical part of birth. 

 

Now it seems that we go from the normal and natural aspects of birth to the mysterious part. What does it mean to be born of the Spirit? 

Again, Jesus explains in verses 6,7.

John 3:6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'

Jesus goes on to give an expansion of his explanation when he talks about the way that the spirit works in salvation. John 3:8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

 

The wind is invisible, we only know that it is working because we see the affects. We see trees sway and dust blowing. The wind comes and goes. We feel it but can't see it. 

This is how the Spirit works. He moves about doing his saving work and sometimes it just doesn't make sense. The Word is preached the same message is heard by all yet one person responds and another doesn't. The Spirit is unpredictable in our way of thinking. 

A friend of mine once said, we work like crazy to put on a special program so that people will hear the gospel and come to Christ. And then someone over in a quick visit accepts Christ while no one in the big organized event comes to Christ. Why? Because salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit. 

Pastor was preaching in Jonas last night and mentioned that the message didn't seem to have anything to do with salvation. Jonas preached "forty more days and Nínive will be overthrown." Yet the whole city repented. How was that possible? I was the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. 

Nicodemus needed that same work and so did you. Later in this conversation Jesus tells this great leader to remember something that had happened almost 1500 years earlier. It was the Jews grumbling in the desert and God sending what the KJV calls "fiery serpents" among the people to kill them. Moses was commanded to make a bronze serpent and to put it on a pole and lift it up for the people to see. Those who looked at it were healed. 

Jesus was predicting how he would die as well as giving further messianic meaning to the account in Numbers 21. John 3:15 ends almost exactly like 3:16. In 3:15 Jesus uses a Messianic title, "the Son of Man. Then 3:16 starts with, "For God so loved the world the he gave..." God's love is a sacrificial love. 

It is not only a sacrifice to give your son up for worthless sinners. It is a miracle of love to give up the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Think about that. The savior died. Paul in his letter to the church of Corinth said that what God did was crazy in the world's eyes (1Cor 1:18-23).

God loved the world and proved his love by sacrificing his only son. We need only to believe, or put our complete trust in that sacrifice.