The Greatest Story Ever Told

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 (NIV)

A 26 word parade of hope: beginning with God, ending with life, and urging us to do the same. Brief enough to write on napkin, yet solid enough to weather over 2000 years or storms and questions. If you know nothing about the Bible start here. If you know everything in the Bible, return here. We all need a reminder. The heart of the human problem is the heart of the human. And God’s treatment is prescribed in John 3:16. (From Max Lucado’s book 3:16 The Numbers of Hope)


The Greatest Story Ever Told!

Today we are going look at John 3:16 in the King James Version. Yes, you heard right KJV (the only translation that uses the word “whosoever”), since this is the source of our class name! Many believe this to be the greatest verse in all the Bible. It is the best loved and best known verse. There are not many words in this verse, yet no other single verse in all the Scriptures has been as blessed in the salvation of so many souls. It has been called the miniature gospel. It has been called the gospel in a nutshell. It has been called a love letter from God written in blood and addressed to all. If ever there was a verse that Satan would love to blot out of the Bible, it would be John 3:16. If ever there was a verse that makes hell tremble, it is John 3:16. If ever there was a verse that has lightened the path to heaven for multitudes, it is John 3:16.

There are many ways to look at this verse but today let’s look at the words of this great verse.

FOR GOD - John 3:16 begins as the Bible begins, with the existence of God taken for granted. “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) Only a fool would think otherwise. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1) The whole Bible stands on belief in God. There cannot be a here without a there. There cannot be an upper without a lower. There cannot be a before without an after. There cannot be a creation without a Creator.

The Bible says that this God...

SO LOVED - What is love? It cannot be defined in words .The word "loved" occurs 56 times in the Book of John. The dictionary says love is "to have a feeling, affection, or regard for, to be strongly attached to or attracted toward, to hold dear". There are also synonyms like affection, charity, devotion, fondness, liking, and passion. All these definitions are weak when defining the word "love". The difficulty becomes greater when you add the word "so". GOD SO LOVED... "so loved" surpasses illustration. Many have tried to apply it to the love of a mother for her child. The following ad appeared in a Boston newspaper years ago.

TO MY BOY WHO LEFT HOME MONDAY NIGHT, SEPTEMBER 15. My darling boy, If you should see this, which I pray to our Heavenly Father that you may, please let your distressed mother know where you are. Mother

The notice was signed with one word - "Mother". That was all. No name. Nothing to let the world know who she was. Just the cry of a mother seeking her lost boy. Not a word about whose fault it was. No blame. No reproach. Just the reaching out of a mother’s love seeking to bring her wanderer back. But a mother’s love falls short of the love of God.

The mind of man will never grasp the love of God. Another great verse about God's love is found in Romans 5:8, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” In this verse and in John 3:16, we find no conditions placed on God's love for us. God doesn't say, "as soon as you clean up your act, I'll love you; " nor does He say, "I'll sacrifice my Son if you promise to love Me." His is an everlasting, unending love with no beginning. God had no beginning so his love had no beginning. All earthly love had a beginning but God’s love reaches back to before the world was in existence and will go on when the world is no more! God’s love is infinite, illimitable, unbounded. The little chorus sung by children says it best, "Wide, wide as the ocean, High as the heaven above, Deep, deep as the deepest sea is my Savior’s love"

A SINNER MAY GO TO HELL UNSAVED, BUT HE CANNOT GO TO HELL UNLOVED.

THE WORLD - The word "world" is found 77 times in John. This is not talking about the physical world but the world people. Someone once said that "No one in all the world could possible love everyone in the world. In fact most people find it difficult to love all their relatives." But God has found it possible, with His great heart of love, to love every individual in the entire world in spite of his faults.

God loves the Jews - but also the Russians, Chinese, Arabs, Americans, etc.
God loves white people - but “red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight"
God loves the civilized - but also the heathen.
God loves the Baptists - but also Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Catholics
God loves the conservatives - but also the liberals and the communists.
God loves preachers - but also murderers, gamblers, bartenders, and prostitutes.
God loves ALL - ALL colors, ALL individuals, ALL social groups, ALL...
God loved a world of saints - NO - A WORLD OF SINNERS.
He loves the sinner not the sin, the criminal not the crime, the rebel not the rebellion, the liar not the lie, the idolater not the idol.

THAT HE GAVE - The world does not know much about “real” giving but God’s giving costs something. Most of the giving we know about is giving that really has no element of sacrifice in it. God did not give the cattle on a 1000 hills or silver and gold. He gave all he had in the person of his Son. "He gave" means suffering. We think a lot about the suffering of the Son but have you ever thought about the suffering of the Father. Could you stand in a window of your house and watch an angry mob spit on, beat, abuse, and kill your child with the power to stop it in a second. God could have stopped it but HE GAVE... Because he loved us.

HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON – The NLT Bible says “his one and only Son “. Because of the love God has for us and the extent of that love—so great that He sacrificed His only Son on our behalf. If you don’t believe this is a different love than we can give – look back at last part of the previous paragraph.

A child was once trying to quote this verse and said "his only forgotten Son" and how true it is. He has been forgotten by most people.

THAT WHOSOEVER - This means all. All have sinned and all need a Savior. It means any who will. It means those who believe. It means US. Aren’t we glad that this promise did not have any name in it? He could have said David, since He said David was a man after his own heart. How about Abraham? Or Moses? Maybe he could have put in Paul who wrote so much of the New Testament? Hey, he could certainly could have limited this to the Jews who were His “chosen people”! But He didn’t, thank you God, He said "whosoever". Whosoever means even ME. Whosoever means YOU..
BELIEVETH - The word "believe" with its various endings occur 100 times in John. Here is the condition of this “gift” - BELIEVE. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. Mark 16:16.
Believing in Jesus denies salvation by any other way but by faith. It denies works, even good works as a means of salvation. Look at the scripture right before John 3:16, and we find Nicodemus. Nicodemus was educated, rich, moral, religious, a do-gooder, a "church member", intelligent, but not saved. Jesus told him in John 3:3, “…I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”. The doors of heaven swing on this experience. We are saved by faith and not by works. See Eph. 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5

IN HIM - Acts 4:12 show us that salvation is in a Person (There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”) and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not found in believing in the preacher, the church, a good Christian, or anyone but in Christ.

SHOULD NOT PERISH - Men of the old world perished but Noah was spared. People of Sodom perished but Lot was spared. The first born of Egypt perished but Israel was spared. Jericho’s citizens perished but Rahab was spared. Whosoever believes in Him shall not perish eternally in hell but make heaven their eternal home. There is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun.

BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE - Life is mentioned 36 times in the Book of John. Notice the verse begins with God and ends with life. Everlasting life is not just eternal existence because if that were the case, the devil and all sinners would have it. What is everlasting life? It is having Jesus. He said “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” in John 14:6. The Bible says “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.” 1 John 5:12
He loves. He gave. We believe. We live.