John 3:16 Cameron Jungles 5-26-2013

“God’s Love & the Gift of his Son” John 3:16

(Eastside Baptist/Sun AM May 26, 2013)

John 3:16 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 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

John 3:19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

John 3:20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

John 3:21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

John 3:3 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again."

John 3:5 Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.

John 3:8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

John 3:14-15 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him."

John 3:16 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.

1. God’s love is self-initiated.

1 John 4:9 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 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Deuteronomy 7:7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

Deuteronomy 7:8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

2. God’s love is inclusive.

3. God’s love is unconditional.

Romans 3:10-12 "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

4. God’s love is sacrificial.

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.

2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

5. God’s love is self-appeasing.

Ephesians 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

Ephesians 2:2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

Ephesians 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

Ephesians 2:4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

Ephesians 2:5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.

Romans 3:25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood--to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--

Romans 3:26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

6. God’s love is generous.

7. God’s love is exclusive.

John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (Jn. 14:6, NIV)

Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved."

John 1:9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

John 1:10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. (Jn. 1:10, NIV)

John 1:11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

John 1:12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--

John 1:13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

Main Idea

Because of the love of God and through the Spirit’s work of new birth, all who believe in Jesus, God’s Son, and his finished work receive the gift of eternal life.