What does love look like to you? When you think of someone demonstrating their love, what comes to mind? A new parent cradling a baby. Love of an elderly couple. The love of a friend who’s standing vigil by a dying friend’s bedside. The love of two young people who just can’t take their eyes off each other. When you think of God’s love, what comes to mind? God’s love for us is a Roman torture device. This makes no sense to the world. God’s love for us is on the cross. Please open your Bibles or your devices, and we’re going to look at John 3 16, and we’re going to read it together. On the screen, we have the new King James Version. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray.
Gracious and heavenly Father. The Bible tells us you loved us so much that you gave us your only begotten son to die for us so that we can have the promise of everlasting life with you. Open our ears now, Lord, to hear your promise, especially during those times of doubt when we question the truth of your word, Amen. God’s grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Have you ever done something that you later regretted? I’m giving you time. Maybe what you did happened a long, long time ago, but you’re still haunted by the memory. Or maybe it’s something that you did more recently that keeps you kind of ridden with guilt. I’m going to tell you a story about my two twin brothers and something that they did when they were little. I can tell you this story because they’re not here to defend themselves and there is no way I am going to tell you something that I did when I was little. When my brothers were two years old, my brother Doug pushed his cradle against the window of our first story house and proceeded to push my brother Greg out the window. I was in the front yard with my dad and I heard a baby crying. I rushed to the backyard and there is my brother Greg. looking like a baby bird who had just been booted out of the nest. Yes, for years my parents told that story. Here I am 58 years later still telling that story. My brother Doug’s misdeed stuck to him like glue. Even when my boys were little, I regaled them with the misdeeds of their Uncle Doug and Uncle Greg. Have you ever felt like you just can’t shake your past? That it sticks to you like glue? Maybe you feel like you are forever going to be tethered to the past. to your very worst sin. Well, maybe your family keeps reminding you of that day, or that week, or that year, or years that you messed up. Or maybe the enemy.
He, uh, shows up in the middle of the night, and he whispers to you, You’re no good. You’re not going to be good. Your future does not look good. Maybe you wear your sin like a second skin. It’s just stuck on you. Newsflash! We’re all sinners, and we’re going to be sinners until the day we die. But the enemy is a liar. Because He wants you to think that Jesus is not for you, and that He doesn’t love you because you’re a sinner. But the Gospel of Matthew reminds us of why Jesus came and died for us. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. See, Jesus knows every single sinful thing that you have done or will do in the future. But Romans 5, 8 says, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were still sinners. That is incredible. Can you imagine loving someone who denies your very existence? who uses your name as a swear word? Can you imagine loving someone who is embarrassed to talk about you even if they do believe in you? Can you imagine loving someone who is the very reason you died on the cross? That’s the love of God. I asked you what comes to mind when you think of love, and because of our sinful, selfish nature, love in the world is more often than not an exchange. You give me love, and I’ll give you love. Or, sometimes we feel that we have to earn it. And if we don’t earn it, or if we betray it, we lose it. That transactional love is the way of the world.
Praise God that God’s love is not transactional. It’s not an exchange. It’s a promise. And a promise doesn’t depend on anything from us. A promise is all about who’s giving the promise. And this promise comes to us from God, God so loved. Now, later this month, we have the Paris Olympics, don’t we? And can you just imagine how it would feel to represent the United States in the Olympics? I mean, we love our athletes, don’t we? When they bring home the gold, oh, it feels so good. But what happens if they do something to embarrass us? if they do something unbecoming of an athlete representing our country. Do you remember Ryan Lottke? In the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, he lied about being robbed at a gas station. Ryan Lottke went from hero to zero. We’re all very fickle about our love for people, aren’t we? They win, they’re in. They lose, or they do something wrong, or they hurt us, oh, they are out. Thank goodness God’s love doesn’t work that way. You don’t have to win God’s love, therefore you’re not going to lose God’s love. You see? God has loved us from eternity, from before the world began. Conditional love is not the love of John 3. 16. Now, last week, in Pastor Todd’s sermon, we looked at the word love, and we looked at the Greek and the Hebrew words for love found in John 3. 16. The Greek word for love here is agape, agape, everlasting, sacrificial.
The Hebrew word, Hesed, Hesed, And Hesed is unconditional, it’s loyal, undeserved kindness. Agape and Hesed are not the love of the world. We think of love in terms of an affection, a feeling. God’s love is a decision. It’s an action. He created you and he loves you. Sinners and saints have equal space in God’s heart. He’s tethered to both. Your goodness can’t win God’s love and your badness can’t lose it. Martin Luther once said about John 3. 16, he said, it’s the gospel in miniature. He said, nowhere else in the Bible do 27 words sum up the entire Bible. Now I’ve got my math people out here who are adding up the 27 words. I don’t know what translation he used. But the point is this, There is no other place in the Bible that so succinctly summarizes God’s relationship with us and the way of salvation. I think it can be said that if you know nothing about the Bible, start here. And If you know everything about the Bible, return here. Now, we’ve been talking about God’s love. But who does God love? John 3. 16 tells us, God so loved the world. God so loved the world. Think about how incredible that is. That means that Christ came for all people. He came for the whole world. God loves every man. He loves everyone equally. That means salvation is possible. for everyone. God loves us not because we’re deserving, but because we’re not deserving. God didn’t love us in order to get something from us. He loved us in order to give everything of himself to us. The enemy, by contrast, he wants you to be identified by your sin, glued to your sin, unable to shake your sin.
He’s right. We can’t shake our sin. Christ’s death on the cross is the only thing that can do that. Our sinful nature. It is. It’s stuck to us. But the enemy, the enemy is lying. He wants you to think that because you’re a sinner, you’re outside of God’s love. Please, please know this. God’s love for you is bigger and stronger than your biggest and strongest sin. He is not going to let you go. Psalm 136 tells us 26 times. His love endures forever. God’s decision for us is in the cross. God so loved the world. That he gave his only begotten son. So whoever, whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. His love endures forever. His love, not our sin, sticks to us like glue. Let us pray. Lord, we give thanks to you for loving us. Your chesed is unconditional, without end. You love us as we are, real men, real women, broken and sinful. You loved us while we were still dead in our sin, and we can never repay you for this sacrifice. And you know we can’t repay you for this sacrifice, and yet you still gave us your son. Your love endures forever, and so do your promises. Amen.
