“John 3:16”

“John 3:16”

1. The Focus of God’s Love is Me

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

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            “Now: unlike ourselves, the Father of Jesus loves men and women, not for what He finds in them, but for what lies within Himself. It is not because men and women are good that He loves them, nor only good men and women that He loves. It is because He is so unutterably good that He loves all persons, good and evil…. He loves the loveless, the unloving, the unlovable. He does not detect what is congenial, appealing, attractive, and respond to it with His favor. In fact, He does not respond at all. The Father of Jesus is a source. He acts; He does not react. He initiates love. He is love without motive.” (James Burtschaell)

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.” (1 John 4:16 ESV)

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9)

“For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:19)

1. The Measure of God’s Love Is Jesus

““For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

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“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)

III.  The Purpose of God’s Love is My Life

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

“There has been only one victory.  Literally, in all of history, there has been only one contest that you could look back to centuries later and agree it was won, permanently and definitively, by one side.   Just one   …. In AD 30, a three day campaign was waged by God against all of His most powerful enemies, sometimes referred to as “rulers”, “principalities”, and “powers”.   The main confrontation took place on a rubbish dump outside Jerusalem where God, in His Son, Jesus met Satan, sin, and death head on.  Mocking enemies was met by a defiant Son of God, and within 6 hours the one sided battle was over, the victory triumphantly announced with the words, “It Is Finished”.     On the third day, the victory parade began, as the risen Champion came out of the tomb to the amazement of earth and the applause of Heaven.   As Paul describes it in Colossians 2:15, God obliterated His enemies in Jesus, took away their armor, and made a public spectacle of them by parading their corpse through the streets.”  (Andrew Wilson)

1. The Means to God’s Love is Faith

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

[ video:   “John 3:16″ ]