Sermon Tone Analysis
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GOD’S LOVE \\ John 3:16 \\ March 27, 2007 \\ \\ INTRODUCTION: \\ \\ <Open in prayer.>
Today’s message is about God’s Love.
What a great topic to preach on!
Since there is probably no greater summary of God’s love than that which is found in John 3:16, we’ll be making that verse our text for today.
Just about everyone knows John 3:16.
As a matter of fact, you may even know it by heart.
It occurred to me that there’s a chance that we know it so well that its meaning and significance has been lost to us.
So, let’s take a closer look at John 3:16 as we go word-by-word, phrase-by-phrase to see what God is trying to say to us through this incredible verse.
Once we’ve found the meaning, let’s examine how it applies to each and every one of us.
Before we begin, let’s read the verse together.
READ JOHN 3:16
“For God so loved…” Just how important is love in the life of the average person?
Can love actually make a difference?
More than fifty years ago, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, a young sociology professor assigned his class the project of interviewing 200 city youths 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 their 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.”
\\ \\ As that great 20th century hymn writer Huey Lewis said, “That’s the power of love.”
And if being loved with an imperfect, human love produces results like this, what are the results of being loved by a perfect, divine love?
As a result of this one teacher’s love each of these boys had a life.
But as a result of God’s love, we’re told in John 3:16, that each of us can have eternal life.
John 3:16 was the verse through which the great preacher 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 a young English preacher named 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 did not mean to be hypocritical when he said this, of course.
He was merely being polite.
Nevertheless, he was saying to himself that he 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.
"Oh, my," he thought, "here I am about to be gone on Sunday, Moorhouse is coming, and I have promised to let him preach."
Finally he said to his wife and to the leaders of the church, "I think that I should let him preach one time.
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.
\\ \\ The topic of God’s love is truly an overwhelming subject to try and tackle in only one message.
There is so much that the Bible has to say about the love of God that I doubt anyone has ever come close to fully comprehending it.
So I will simply begin by saying that I could never do justice to the topic of God’s love, but let’s take a look at John 3:16 to get just a hint; just a taste of what the love of God is all about.
\\ \\ As we just recited, Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
It is only one sentence.
And that sentence contains only twenty-four words.
Yet that one sentence is packed with so much truth that we literally will not have time to fully unpack its contents this morning.
But I’ll try anyway.
\\ \\ From this one verse we can find at least seven truths about the love of God.
Let’s take a look at them together.
\\ \\ 1. THE LOVE OF GOD IS UNCONDITIONAL.
\\ * \\ For God so loved the world,* \\ \\ The Greek word for world (kosmos) can be defined as “the ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ.”
This is the world that God loved.
It doesn’t say that God loved all the good guys.
Or that God loved all the Jews.
Or that God love all the saints.
It says, “For God so loved the world.”
\\ \\ That God should love the world only heightens the mystery of this love.
Were we to imagine a pristine world, fresh from the hand of the Creator and uninfected by evil, we could more easily comprehend God’s desire to save it.
But this filthy, perverse, rebellious world which not only failed to recognize its maker (John 1:10) but openly hated His approach to it (15:18) would seem a poor choice for love.
\\ \\ So God’s love clearly isn’t based on our spiritual condition or our moral predisposition.
It isn’t based on our behavior or our attitude toward Him.
Rather we see here that God’s love for mankind is universal and unconditional.
He loves everyone.
And this is one of the things that sets Him apart from every other god held up by every other world religion.
\\ \\ At a comparative religions conference, the wise and the scholarly were in a spirited debate about what is unique about Christianity.
Someone suggested what set Christianity apart from other religions was the concept of incarnation, the idea that God took human form in Jesus.
But someone quickly said, “Well, actually, other faiths believe that God appears in human form.”
\\ \\ Another suggestion was offered: what about resurrection?
The belief that death is not the final word.
That the tomb was found empty.
Someone slowly shook his head.
Other religions have accounts of people returning from the dead.
\\ \\ Then, as the story is told, C.S. Lewis walked into the room, tweed jacket, pipe, arm full of papers, a little early for his presentation.
He sat down and took in the conversation, which had by now evolved into a fierce debate.
Finally during a lull, he spoke saying, “what’s all this rumpus about?” \\ \\ Everyone turned in his direction.
Trying to explain themselves they said, “We’re debating what’s unique about Christianity.”
\\ \\ “Oh, that’s easy,” answered Lewis.
“It’s grace.”
\\ \\ The room fell silent.
\\ \\ Lewis continued that Christianity uniquely claims God’s love comes free of charge, no strings attached.
No other religion makes that claim.
\\ \\ After a moment someone commented that Lewis had a point, Buddhists, for example, follow an eight-fold path to enlightenment.
It’s not a free ride.
Hindus believe in karma, that your actions continually affect the way the world will treat you; that there is nothing that comes to you not set in motion by your actions.
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