John 3:16 - LOVE SUPREME!
John 3:16 (KJV) For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.
INTRODUCTION
The Symbol of Christianity
The cross is the universal symbol of
Christianity. An odd choice, dont you think? Strange
that a tool of torture would come to embody a
movement of hope. Its design couldnt be simpler.
One beam horizontal - the other vertical. One
reaches out like Gods love. The other reaches up,
as does Gods holiness. One represents the
width of His love; the other the height of His
holiness. The cross is the intersection. The cross is
where God forgave His children without lowering
His standards. God treated His Son as a sinner,
so that Christ could make us acceptable to God.
Why would He do it?
John 3:16 says, For God so loved the
world. Arent you glad the verse doesnt read:
For God so loved the rich? the famous? Or
the sober or successful? No, it simply reads:
For God so loved the world! [Max Lucado Daily
Devotional at maxlucado.com]
Jesus Has Been Here
My dad, a man of few words, told my
brother and me, Boys, Christmas is about
Jesus. In one of those bedtime, book-time moments,
somewhere between the fairy tales and the monkey with
the lunch pail, I thought about what Dad had
said. And I began asking the Christmas questions,
and Ive been asking them ever since.
God knows what its like to be a human,
and when we talk to him about deadlines or tough
times he understands. Hes been there. Hes
been here. Because of Bethlehem, we have a friend
in Jesus. Christmas begins what Easter
celebrates. The child in the cradle became the King on
the cross. And he doesnt tell us, Clean up
before you come in. He offers, Come in and
Ill clean you up. Its not our grip on him
that matters, but his grip on us. And his grip is
sure. [Max Lucado Daily Devotional at
maxlucado.com]
COMMENTARY PEARL
Responding to God's Love
God has to be true to Himself. People are
foolish to entertain the hope that He will ignore
justice and sacrifice holiness in order to allow
unbelievers into heaven. Living a mostly moral life will
not satisfy a righteous Judge.
As much as the Lord loves us and desires
to save us from our sins, He cannot deny His
holiness by accepting sin in His presence. The Father
is pristine perfection - a holy Being who, by
His very nature, must condemn all sin.
Therefore, it is the height of egotism to think that
God will bend both His law and His nature to
welcome one whom still bears the stain of
wrongdoing.
There is not one person who's good enough
to enter heaven on his or her own merit. Every
one of us needs Jesus. The stain of sin is
washed clean only by the sacrifice of God's holy
and blameless Son. Those who believe in Christ
are forgiven their wrongs and cloaked in His
righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21).
Let me make it very clear that trusting
Jesus is far more than giving intellectual assent
to His existence - that's something even the
Devil acknowledges. A true believer enters into a
relationship with the One who loves his soul enough to
save him from eternal punishment.
Those who remain tightly wrapped in their
mantle of sin cannot hope to sneak into heaven.
God's holy nature demands perfection, and since we
can't provide this for ourselves, the Lord has
given it to all who believe in Him. He has
exchanged our filthy rags for a cloak of righteousness
(Zech. 3:4). [In Touch Daily Devotional by Charles
Stanley at www.intouch.org]
COMMENTARY
God Made You to Love You
God loves you so much that he sent Jesus
on a mission of love with a message of love.
The Bible doesnt say God has love; it says
God is love. Love is his nature; God is love.
God created the entire universe. He
created this planet, and he created the human race.
Then he created you because he loves you.
God made you so he could love you and so
that you could love him. Gods love for you is
the reason your hearts beating right now;
its the reason youre breathing.
Gods good news is that he loves you on
your bad days just as much as he loves you on
your good days. He loves you when you can feel
his love, and he loves you when you cant seem
to feel his love. He loves you regardless of
whether or not you think you deserve his love.
There is nothing you can do that will
make God stop loving you. You could try, but you
simply cant do it - because his love for you is
based upon his character and not on anything you
do, say, or feel.
God loves you so much that he sent his
only Son, Jesus, into this world, so that
everyone who believes in him will not perish but have
eternal life (John 3:16 NLT).
When Jesus stretched his arms out as wide
as the cross, he was saying, I love you this
much! I love you so much it hurts. I love you so
much Ill die for you so that I wont have to
live without you.
Ephesians 3 says Gods love is so wide,
long, high, and deep that humans cant fully
understand it. As you go about your day today, know
that God is loving you at every moment, no matter
what. [Daily Devotional by Rick Warren:
https://pastorrick.com/devotional/]
THOUGHTS FOR MEDITATION
He Did it Just for You
When God entered time and became a man,
he who was boundless became bound. Imprisoned
in flesh. Restricted by weary-prone muscles and
eyelids. For more than three decades, his once
limitless reach would be limited to the stretch of an
arm, his speed checked to the pace of human
feet.
I wonder, was he ever tempted to reclaim
his boundlessness? In the middle of a long trip,
did he ever consider transporting himself to the
next city? When the rain chilled his bones, was
he tempted to change the weather? When the heat
parched his lips, did he give thought to popping
over to the Caribbean for some refreshment?
If ever he entertained such thoughts, he
never gave in to them. Not once. Stop and think
about this. Not once did Christ use his
supernatural powers for personal comfort. With one word
he couldve transformed the hard earth into a
soft bed, but he didnt. With a wave of his
hand, he couldve boomeranged the spit of his
accusers back into their faces, but he didnt. With
an arch of his brow, he couldve paralyzed
the hand of the soldier as he braided the crown
of thorns. But he didnt.
Want to know the coolest thing about the
coming?
Not that he, in an instant, went from
needing nothing to needing air, food, a tub of hot
water and salts for his tired feet, and, more than
anything, needing somebody " anybody - who was more
concerned about where he would spend eternity than
where he would spend Fridays paycheck.
Not that he kept his cool while the dozen
best friends he ever had felt the heat and got
out of the kitchen. Or that he gave no command
to the angels who begged, Just give the nod,
Lord. One word and these demons will be deviled
eggs.
Not that he refused to defend himself
when blamed for every sin since Adam. Or that he
stood silent as a million guilty verdicts echoed
in the tribunal of heaven and the giver of
light was left in the chill of a sinners
night.
Not even that after three days in a dark
hole he stepped into the Easter sunrise with a
smile and a swagger and a question for lowly
Lucifer - Is that your best punch?
That was cool, incredibly cool.
But want to know the coolest thing about
the One who gave up the crown of heaven for a
crown of thorns?
He did it for you. Just for you. [Max
Lucado Daily Devotional at maxlucado.com]
You Are Included
Its nice to be included. You arent
always. Universities exclude you if you arent
smart enough. Businesses exclude you if you
arent qualified enough, and sadly, some churches
exclude you if you arent good enough. But though
they may exclude you, Christ includes you. When
asked to describe the width of His love, He
stretched one hand to the right and the other hand to
the left and had them nailed in that position so
you would know He died loving you.
Surely there has to be a limit to this
love. Youd think so, wouldnt you? But David,
the adulterer, never found it. Paul, the
murderer, never found it. Peter, the liar, never found
it. When it came to life they hit bottom. But
when it came to Gods love they never did.
How wide is Gods love? Wide enough
for the whole world. And you are included! [Max
Lucado Daily Devotional at maxlucado.com]
Look at What You Have
Linger too long in the stench of your
hurt, and youll smell like the toxin you
despise. I spent too much of a summer sludging
through sludge. Oil field work is dirty at best. But
the dirtiest job of all? Shoveling silt out of
empty oil tanks. The foreman saved such jobs for
the summer help. Thanks boss! My mom burned my
work clothes. The stink stuck!
Your hurts can do the same. The better
option? Look at what you have. Your hurts and pain
took much, but Christ gave you more! Catalog His
kindnesses. Everything from sunsets to salvation - look
at what you have.
Let Jesus be the friend you need. Talk to
Him. Spare no detail. Disclose your fear and
describe your dread. Will your hurt disappear? Who
knows? And in a sense, does it matter? You have a
friend for life. What could be better than that?
[Max Lucado Daily Devotional at maxlucado.com]
CLOSING THOUGHTS
The great physicist and mathematician Albert
Einstein said, I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the
luminous figure of the Nazarene... No one can read
the Gospels without feeling the actual presence
of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every
word. No myth is filled with such life.
The Only One and Only
Two of our three daughters were born in
the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We
lived in the North Zone, separated from our
doctors office and hospital by a tunnel-pierced
mountain range. During Denalyns many months of
pregnancy, we made the drive often.
We didnt complain. Signs of life do a
samba on every street corner. Copacabana and her
bathers. Ipanema and her coffee bars. Gavea and her
glamour. We never begrudged the South Zone forays.
But they sure did bewilder me. I kept getting
lost. Im directionally challenged anyway, prone
to take a wrong turn between the bedroom and
the bathroom. Complicate my disorientation with
randomly mapped three-hundred-year-old streets, and I
dont stand a chance.
I had one salvation. Jesus. Literally,
Jesus. The Christ the Redeemer statue. The figure
stands guard over the city, one hundred twenty-five
feet tall with an arm span of nearly a hundred
feet. More than a thousand tons of reinforced
steel. The head alone measures ten feet from chin
to scalp. Perched a mile and a half above sea
level on Corcovado Mountain, the elevated Jesus is
always visible. Especially to those who are looking
for it. Since I was often lost, I was often
looking. As a sailor seeks land, I searched for the
statue, peering between the phone lines and rooftops
for the familiar face. Find him and find my
bearings.
John 3:16 offers you an identical
promise. The verse elevates Christ to thin-air
loftiness, crowning him with the most regal of titles:
One and Only Son.
Do what I did in Rio. Seek him out. Lift
up your eyes, and set your sights on Jesus. No
passing glances or occasional glimpses. Enroll in
his school. Make him your polestar, your point
of reference. Search the crowded streets and
shadow-casting roofs until you spot his face, and then set
your sights on him.
Youll find more than a hospital.
Youll find the Only One and Only. [Max
Lucado Daily Devotional at maxlucado.com]
The Ultimate Sacrifice
I heard a true story about a man who
operated a drawbridge. At a certain time every
afternoon, he raised the bridge for a ferryboat to go
by and then lowered it in time for a passenger
train to cross over. He performed this task
precisely, according to the clock.
One day he brought his son to work so he
could watch. As his father raised the bridge, the
boy got excited and wanted to take a closer
look. His father realized his son was missing and
began looking for him. To his horror, his son had
come dangerously close to the bridge's gears.
Frantic, he wanted to go rescue him, but if he left
the controls, he would not be back in time to
lower the bridge for the approaching passenger
train.
He faced a dilemma. If he lowered the
bridge, his son would be killed. If he left it
raised, hundreds of others would die. He knew what
he had to do. With tears streaming down his
face, he watched the passenger train roll by. On
board, two women chatted over tea. Others were
reading newspapers. All were totally unaware of what
had just transpired. The man cried out, "Don't
you realize that I just gave my son for you?"
But they just continued on their way.
This story is a picture of what happened
at the cross. God gave up His beloved Son so
that we might live. But most people don't give it
a second thought. How about you? Are you
conscious of the ultimate sacrifice God made on your
behalf? Will you be sure to thank Him? [Every Day
with Jesus by Greg Laurie]
LINK FOR FURTHER STUDY ON THIS TOPIC
John 3:16 - The Love of God.
http://www.abible.com/devotions/2020/20201111-1036.html
YOUR COMMENTS
If anyone has a paraphrase, commentary or
testimony on this passage of Scripture, either
personal or otherwise, I would be interested in
hearing from you. Thanks in advance and let's keep
uplifting Jesus that all might be drawn to Him. Fred
Gibbs
LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT
Most Important Decision in Life:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/WGnEuGwvXqU?rel=0
A Man without Equal by Bill Bright:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiVa7UoruIo
Seeking God Made Real:
http://vimeo.com/31489782
Prayer Made Real:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc8VdMV26VE
Importance of Choice:
http://creationhealth.com/CREATION-Health/Choice [click on video]
Medical Seminar on Healthful Living by David
DeRose, MD, MPH:
https://www.smartlifestyletv.com/lifestart
LINKS FOR BIBLE STUDIES
Lifting Up Jesus Bible Studies:
http://www.liftingupjesus.net/
Amazing Facts Bible Studies:
http://www.amazingfacts.org/bible-study/bible-study-guides.aspx
Hope Awakens Bible Study Guides:
https://www.hopeawakens.study/lesson-header;id=2
Glow Tract Video Bible Studies:
http://www.bibleresearch.info/
LINKS FOR BIBLE PROPHECY SEMINARS
Islam and Christianity in Prophecy, The
Third and Final Conflict by Tim Roosenberg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHSJB-fuHLU&list=PLWhQIHGTHlkaGg5Cwe3NDzWtFX8vNSpsE
Unlocking Bible Prophecies by Cami Oetman of
Adventist World Radio: https://www.awr.org/bible
Revelation Now by Pastor Doug Batchelor:
https://www.revelationnow.com/
Hope Awakens by John Bradshaw of IIW:
https://itiswritten.tv/programs/hope-awakens
Prophecies Decoded by Pastor Ron Clouzet:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1A435C5373550657
