1. D. L. Moody was a great American Evangelist in the late 19th Century.
John 3:16 was the verse through which D. L. Moody learned to appreciate the greatness of God's love. Moody had been to Britain in the early days of his ministry and there had met the young English preacher, Henry Moorhouse. One day Moorhouse said to Moody, "I am thinking of going to America."
"Well," said Moody, "if you should ever get to Chicago, come down to my church and I will give you a chance to preach."
Moody was merely being polite and hoped Moorhouse would not come, for Moody had not heard him preach and had no idea of what he would say should he come to Chicago.
Sometime later, after Moody had returned home, the evangelist received a telegram that said, "Have just arrived in New York. Will be in Chicago on Sunday. Moorhouse." Moody was perplexed about what he should do, and to complicate matters he was just about to leave for a series of meetings elsewhere. He said to his wife and to the leaders of the church, "I think that I should let him preach once. So let him preach once; then if the people enjoy him, put him on again."
Moody was gone for a week. When he returned he said to his wife, "How did the young preacher do?"
"Oh, he is a better preacher than you are," his wife said. "He is telling sinners that God loves them."
"That is not right," said Moody. "God does not love sinners."
"Well," she said, "you go and hear him."
"What?" said Moody. "Do you mean to tell me that he is still preaching?"
"Yes, he has been preaching all week, and he has only had one verse for a text. It is John 3:16."
Moody went to the meeting. Moorhouse got up and began by saying, "I have been hunting for a text all week, and I have not been able to find a better text than John 3:16. So I think we will just talk about it once more." He did. Afterward Moody said it was on that night that he first clearly understood the greatness of God's love.
2. John 3.16-21
3. A Proper perception of God is critical -- He is NOT distant; cold; angry; or disinterested in us
4. Consider some aspects of God's love for us
I. God's Love Is Astonishing -- SO Loved the World -- Surprising to us!
A. God's Nature is Love -- 1 John 4.7-8
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1. He knows us -- each of us and loves us any way -- Romans 3.23; Matthew 10.30
2. [Lucky
A few years ago there was an article in a newspaper about a dog named, "Lucky." It read:
Lost, One God; brown hair with several mange spots, right leg broken due to auto accident; left rear hip hurt; right eye missing; left ear bitten off in a dog fight; answers to the name, Lucky.
This dog was lucky because it had an owner that loved it so much -- in spite of its shortcomings -- he or she would pay someone money to help them find it.
B. The core of the gospel -- Romans 5.8
[Martin Luther said that John 3.16 was "the gospel in miniature."
II. God's Love Is Active -- He Gave
Love must be expressed.
A. God Expresses His Love Personally
1. His desire for closeness to us -- Walked with Adam and Eve and with Enoch; Abraham was God's Friend; David had his heart; you and me
2. He expresses his love in his Son
3. He expresses his love on people -- Galatians 2.20
B. God Expresses His Love Sacrificially
1. What more could God do?
2. He paid our way -- "It is finished" = an accounting term meaning a debt was paid in full
III. God's Love Is Audacious
A. BOLD in its Extravagance
1. Greater Love
12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. John 15.12-14
2. Greatest Love -- give an only son -- it is one thing to lay down your own life; it is quite another to give up the life of your only child for disrespectful people
3. Compare to Jephthah's Tragic Vow in Judges 11.30ff
30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, "If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering."
B. An Unconditional Quality of God's Love
A child was once trying to quote from John 3:16 in the King James Version, which says, "His only begotten Son." But the child misquoted it and said, "His only forgotten Son." It was one of those slips of the tongue that carried more truth than we would care to admit. For by most people in the world today Jesus is truly forgotten. His life is forgotten. His love is forgotten. His sacrifice is forgotten. It is our job as God's ambassadors -- to help them remember.
Joe was a drunk, miraculously converted in a street outreach mission. Before his conversion he'd gained a reputation as a derelict and dirty wino for whom there was no hope. But following his conversion to Christ, everything changed. Joe became the most caring person at the mission. He spent his days there, doing whatever needed to be done.
There was never anything he was asked to do that he considered beneath him. Whether it was cleaning up vomit left by some sick alcoholic, or scrubbing toilets after men had left them filthy, Joe did it all with a heart of gratitude. He could be counted on to feed any man who wandered in off the streets, undress and tuck him into bed, when he was too out-of-it to take care of himself.
One evening, after the mission director delivered his evangelistic message to the usual crowd of sullen men with drooped heads, one of them looked up, came forward to kneel to pray, crying out for God to help him change. The repentant drunk kept shouting, "Oh God, make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe!" The director leaned over and said, "Son, wouldn't it be better if you prayed 'make me like Jesus?"
After thinking about it for a few moments, the man looked up with an inquisitive expression and asked, "Is He like Joe?"
What a great story and what a powerful way to live. Are you living your life in such a way that you are reminding people of the only 'forgotten' Son of God? He is the source of God's unconditional love.
IV. God's Love Is Available -- Whosoever Believes
A. God is Accessible by Faith
1. Not Mere Mental Assent -- no "sinner's prayer" in the Bible
2. Determination to Go with God -- Exodus 17.12b
So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
B. God Transforms Us Through Faith -- not to perish but have eternal life
[Power of Love
More than fifty years ago, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, a young sociology professor assigned his class the project of interviewing 200 city youth residing in downtown slums. He asked them to predict their future. Students predicted that ninety percent would serve time in prison. Twenty-five years later the same professor asked a class to track down the original boys and discover what had happened. One hundred eighty were located and only four had ever been in jail. Why were predictions so far off?
Looking for common factors, over 100 of the boys mentioned the strong influence of a teacher they all had in common. They then located the teacher, a seventy-year-old Sheila O'Rourke, in a Memphis nursing home. Puzzled by the interest in her, she could only exclaim, "All I ever did was love each of them."
That is the power of love!
1. Remember:
There is nothing you can do to make God love you more.
There is nothing you can do to make God love you less.
His love is unconditional, impartial, everlasting, and perfect!
2. God Delights in Us
One author wrote:
"There are many reasons God saves you: to bring glory to himself, to appease his justice, to demonstrate his sovereignty. But one of the sweetest reasons God saved you is because he is fond of you. He likes having you around. He thinks you are the best thing to come down the pike in quite a while... If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and he chose your heart. And the Christmas gift he sent you in Bethlehem? Face it, friend. He's crazy about you!"
