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.

His Love Endures Forever – Psalm 136

Sometimes we gain that wisdom from our children. A six-year-old girl whose mother has a deadly tumor and under hospice care, posted this comment on Facebook: ”She thought Heaven was great place to go so she decided not to “break up” with Jesus” :)

Note the smiley face at the end of that sentence. What truth there is in that little symbol. In times of great crisis we discover what we really believe. Her parents, coming to the great moment of truth, smile through their tears because they know that God is good.

No matter our circumstances, the little girl is right. Why “break up” with Jesus now.We have to find out who God is so that we will be strong when the storms of life come against us.

We can see this principle at work in Psalm 136, sometimes called a “Hallelujah Psalm” because it contains no petitions, no complaints, and no problems. Instead it contains a list of moments where God worked in history, each answered by “His love endures forever.” No doubt the worship leader would read the first line of each verse, and the congregation would respond, “His love endures forever."

Click here to hear song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVYcDOXczus

The Call to Praise
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever. (vv. 1-3).
These verses offer us three reasons to praise God. He is good! He is the God of gods! He is the Lord of lords!

There are “gods” aplenty and “lords” all around us, but there is only one true God who rules the universe. To that great God belongs our best and deepest and highest praise. It is impossible to overestimate the value of these truths. If he were not supreme, we would not worship him. If he were not good, we would not trust him.

But because he is both good and the ultimate Lord, we not only trust him, we also bow before him in praise and worship!

Note the answering chorus in each verse: “His love endures forever.” These simple words remind us that all things display God’s love at work on behalf of His children.

The Hebrew word translated “love” refers to loyal, faithful love. God’s love is eternal because his covenant is eternal. He cannot not love his people!
But the meaning goes beyond that. God’s love endures. It outlasts all the problems of life. It transcends the troubles we face every day. It goes on when our life comes to an end.

When we stand by the grave of a loved one, we have to know the truth. Where is he? Where is she? Is death the end or is there something else?
What gives us the confidence to face death with our heads held high? How can we cross the Jordan to reach the other side? We can because “His love endures forever.” That’s it! That’s our hope! We die, but “His love endures forever.” We fail, but “His love endures forever.” We stumble and fall, but “His love endures forever.”

The Cause for Praise
The remainder of Psalm 136 contains a survey of God’s faithfulness beginning with creation (vv. 5-9) and ending with Israel’s entry into the Promised Land (vv. 10-26).

Creation (verses 5-9)
These verses come from the story of the creation in Genesis. In verses 5 through 9 the psalmist notes that the universe and everything in it is made “by his understanding.” The universe came into being because God willed it to be.” “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” (Hebrews 11:3) The entire universe came into being by a plan that comes from the hand and mind of Almighty God. Nothing was made by chance. Nothing “evolved” into being by a random series of events. If we leave God out, we’ve missed the fundamental truth about the universe!

The Exodus (verses 10-15)
These verses recall the amazing series of miracles whereby God freed his people from Egyptian bondage: Note: Each of these is followed by “His love endures forever”. “to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt . . . and brought Israel out from among them . . with a mighty hand and outstretched arm . . . to him who divided the Red Sea asunder . . . and brought Israel through the midst of it . . .but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea . .

God has no trouble defeating his enemies. He also has no trouble parting the Red Sea. He only asks that his people acknowledge that he did it–and not them!
The Wilderness (verse 16)
The psalmist sums up forty years of wandering in one verse: “To him who led his people through the desert, His love endures forever” (v. 16). So many things happened during those forty years: manna and quail, water from the rock, Moses on Mt. Sinai, the golden calf the 12 spies, bitter water, complaining, and the continual challenges to Moses’ leadership. Through it all, God led his people to the Promised Land.

We see here that God led his people “through” the desert, not around it. To get to the Promised Land, they had to go through the desert. So it will be for all of us. God leads his children along to heaven, but they have no easy road as they make their journey. There are many detours, many road blocks, many delays, and more than a few seemingly dead ends, but God works in and through it all to see that they finally arrive because . . . His love endures forever!

The Conquest (Vs 17-22)
The psalmist goes on to write: “to Him who struck down great kings” His love endures forever. V 17. What an encouragement these verses are because they remind of us God’s faithfulness in spite of our repeated failures. It would have been easy for the Jews to think, “Our sin has made God forget us. We have no hope, no future. We’ve blown everything.” But despite their sin and foolish unbelief, God never gave up on his people.

Let every child of God take great hope. Your past does not determine your future. You may have failed again and again and again, but there is still mercy for those who trust in the Lord. Who knows but that tomorrow you may yet see God win a great victory in your life because . . . His love endures forever!

Throughout History (verses 23-25)
These verses contain three great truths about God: He remembered us (v. 23). He freed us (v. 24). He feeds us (v. 25). He remembered us by sending Jesus to save us. He freed us from our sins. He feeds us every single day. What God did for ancient Israel, he does for his people everywhere, all the time, in every situation because . . . His love endures forever!

The Conclusion of Praise
The psalm ends with a general call to praise God at all times: “Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever" (v. 26).

History is not about us. History is about God! This may seem elementary, but it is in fact a profound truth. We are the not the center of history. God is! What happens to us matters, but the real point of life is to glorify God in all things.
To see his hand at work. To believe him in the darkest moments. To give him thanks for every victory. To lean upon his Word. To grow more like him day by day. To live so that others find it easy to believe in him.

That’s why the psalmist connects the concrete facts of history with a triumphant cry of praise. If we miss this, or if we downplay this, or if we think that God is somehow “optional” to our lives, then we have missed the very purpose of our existence.

One of our main purposes on earth is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
But it is not always easy. In this long recital of Israel’s history, the psalmist covers many years in just a few sentences. God’s plan was not always easily seen at every point along the way. When the Jews were groaning in Egypt under Pharaoh’s whip, we could understand why they might have felt abandoned by the Almighty. Still later they complained against the Lord after they had been delivered and said how much they missed Egypt.

How shortsighted we are! How quick to forget God’s goodness to us!
We pray for deliverance and then complain when it comes. We were born wishing for something better. This psalm reminds us in every single verse that God’s ways and our ways are not the same. Generally we will only see God’s plan in retrospect. As we look back, we say, “Oh, I see it now.” But when we are in the furnace, we see nothing but the flames.

We need Psalm 136 to remind ourselves, because we are so prone to forget it, that God works across the centuries to establish his purposes on the earth. Just because we don’t see it on Thursday at 6:37 AM doesn’t mean it’s not there. It just means we don’t see it. That’s all.

We aren’t the center of the universe - God is. Best that we should meditate on that fact now because we’ll certainly need to remember it before this year is over.

Remember the big picture: His love endures forever.

Say it over to yourself. Repeat the phrase. Memorize it. When you feel yourself tempted to despair, ponder this thought: His love endures forever. When you want to give up, write this thought down and stick it on your dashboard: His love endures forever. Tell your husband: His loves endures forever. Tell your wife: His loves endures forever. Tell your children: His love endures forever. When the devil himself starts whispering in your ear about what a loser you are, you tell him to hit the road because His love endures forever. When you have had all you can take, when the world seems to collapse around you, stand up, lift your head, and shout to the skies: His love endures forever!

What does this New Year hold for us? No one really knows but we can always remember this:

No matter where we’re going this week, His love endures forever.
No matter what our problems, His love endures forever.
No matter how we feel about it, His love endures forever.

Fix your mind on the Lord Jesus, and no matter what else happens this year, stake your claim right here and rejoice evermore because . . . His love endures forever!