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INTRODUCTION
If you are reading this, I hope you are enjoying the Web Site. On my Staff Profile it states
“...he likes…listening to the great music of the 1960’s and 1970’s.”
And I do. I enjoy the Christian music of that era for sure, plus some of the country, pop, big
band, and rock and roll. So much of the secular music was about love. A favorite was
“What the world needs now is love sweet love, no not just for some but for every one...”
Today we are going to talk about that love for everyone - God’s Love. To re-grasp
love’s depth, we need to go back to the creator and giver of love Himself - God.
Today we continue looking at the Bible in miniature, the key verse of the Bible.
QUOTE John 3:16. We will look at the phrase: “For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...”
1. The Grandeur of God’s Love. “For God so loved”
- A God who loves is a foundational difference between Christianity and all other
religions. We have a Big God, sovereign of the universe, who loves mankind. He cares
for us, has compassion for us, desires a relationship with us, wants the very best for
us.
- “agape” noblest and strongest form of love in Greek. It is an act
of the will, a total commitment to the welfare of another. It is not an emotion,
infatuation, conditional feel good love. But a decisive act of caring.
- We are so used to emotional love, goose bumps, tingles, hard to imagine a love that is
just a compassionate decision. Celebrity divorce settlements are in the millions, some
over $100 million. I can’t image, can you?
- God’s love is beyond emotions. God’s love is eternal, not subject to
change, not subject to end. It is unconditional in that is not based on our attraction
or goodness. God deeply cares for us, and He wants us to have the best from Him, and
be the best for Him and for ourselves.
- I once heard a youth speaker ask children to quote John 3:16. The kids quoted it
verbatim, but not exactly the way speaker wanted. He wanted “For God SOOOOOOOOOO
loved” Don’t forget the little word. The text doesn’t say “For
God loved”, it is SO much deeper.
- “so” emphasizes the awesome degree, the eternal degree.
- No person can fully love to the extent God can - for eternity. He created us, He
sustains us, He desires to redeem us. Has the power to give us very best.
2. The Global Scope of God’s Love. “the world”
- “world” cosmos, all of creation, the totality of man. God’s
love is not has no boundaries. God loves all regardless of race, color, creed,
nationality, sex. God loves all people everywhere, at all times equally.
- He loves the whole, but all each individual.
- I love Iowa, but I can’t love all Iowans. But God can - the world.
- God has enough love to go around for all people, He loves all because He loves each.
And love extends to you and me. God loves me!
- Plus, what is more amazing is the condition of the world’s peoples.
- We are sinners. We are unloving, unlovable. We are not cute teddy bears, we are ugly
sinners. We have made the world a horrible mess: wars, murders, immoral, injustice,
poverty, genocide. Yet, God still cares for us. God loves us. Romans 5:8
“while yet sinners, Christ died...”
- Population today 6.5 Billion, at time of Jesus 200 million. The understanding of the
world was limited at time of Jesus. Today we see the world in media, travel
extensively. We live in a global economy, village. We have a better grasp of the world
today than disciples did, their vision for the world was huge, beyond their
imagination, but it is within our visualization. Our denominational mission is called
WorldVenture and it seeks to span the world.
- This is a big world that God loves. God is a big God who can love to the full extent
of the population. God loves all the people of the world.
3. The Gift of God’s Love. “that He gave His only begotten Son”
- God’s love, agape love is a giving love. It is not agape love if God
doesn’t give something of Himself to us. And true to His nature He gave us His
“only begotten Son,” = His very one and only Son, one of a kind,
equal to the Father, divine yet fully human. “begotten” - 5
x’s in John
- In spite of who we are He gave us the most cherished gift, the best gift. God the
creator gave of Himself to live among His creation. He left a home in glory, the cover
of glorious power, to live in the limitations and among the sinful conditions of
mankind - knowing what we would do.
- God gave His only Son - pure, and Holy Son, to live among the wicked, ugly, unloving
human race. But a God of love can do that, because God’s love gives
sacrificially. Divine Love is not love unless it gives its most precious gift, most
expensive, sacrificially. Philippians 2:5-8
- This is stark contrast to pagan gods. In the Illiad, the mythological Juno says to
Vulcan: “Dear son, refrain, it is not well that thus a god should suffer for the
sake of man.”
- This love is what separates Christianity from other religions.
- God stopped at nothing to show us the full extent of His love - He gave Jesus. That is
love at its best, in the highest form.
- In famous St. Paul’s Cathedral of London, life size marble statue of Christ in
anguish on cross, inscription: “This is how God love the world.”
- 1 John 4:7-10. Jesus lived for the highest purpose of dying, so that we would
have a purpose for living and receive the gift of eternal life.
CONCLUSION
Mere words cannot describe the love of God. Intro hymn tried: QUOTE verse 3, Page # 67. I
hope you appreciate God’s love for you just a little bit more. It should move you -
touch your heart, emotions, and will.
In 1860, 2 sisters Anna and Susan Warner wrote a novel Say and Seal. It became a best seller
then - we never heard of it. Don’t even know the plot, but one of the characters Mr.
Linden comforts a little dying boy named Johnny Fax with a poem. That poem touched hearts and
William Bradbury, a early gospel music composer took the poem and set it to music, and added
the chorus to the four stanzas written by Anna. It was published in 1862 and quickly became a
popular song for children of all ages.
While we sing # 579 “Jesus Loves Me,” if God’s love is touching you
today, the invitation is to come forward and visit with one of us so you can be saved.
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