Introduction to John 3:16 - 18

Lesson #40

Today we will begin to cover the text from John 3:16 – 18. Here we encounter one of the most famous verses in the Bible; “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV). This is a verse I have thought about for years. I have considered what it says and how it is being used. On the surface it appears so simple; God loves, God gave, we believe, we receive. It is commonly used as an invitation by saying, “God loves you so much that he gave you his Son and if you believe that then you will receive eternal life. If you believe that then raise your hand or stand up or come forward (or any combination of that) and you will be saved.” There are many that do that and are counted for salvation but they are not born again. They are simply a salvation statistic used to measure the success of a program.

Along with Alistain Begg, another favorite Bible teachers is John Piper who in his 70 sermon series on the Gospel of John devotes two sermons on these three verses. I have listened to these two sermons so many times I would find it difficult to write about these verses and not be somewhat guilty of plagiarizing. As a result I am going to try something I have been thinking of doing for over a year. I would like to develop a study, directly using the resources of these two sermons. I plan to divide the two sermons into time segments appropriate for each lesson. For this example, for this introduction you will need this link to go to the sermon and then listen from the beginning to time 13:35.

A careful inspection of John 3:16 reveals eight key words. They are God, loved, world, gave, Son, whoever, believes, and life. A lesson will be devoted to each word, except to the word love, which will take more than one lesson and will be covered after the other seven.

Prayer

Father, to so many, John 3:16 seems so simple, but careful study reveals just the opposite. Father, I find a tension between John 3:8 and 3:16. John 3:8 implies that only the ones the Spirit touches are born again, but John 3:16 seems to imply that whoever believes can be born again. Father, I pray that the Spirit will teach and reveal the truth about these two verses and how they relate and thus release this tension. Lord, because of the importance of this series of studies I pray that readers will take a few minutes to consider what is said.