The World
Sermon Audio
Sermon Notes
Intro:
Hey everybody my name’s Louis I’m the lead teaching pastor here at City Awakening, it’s great to be with you this morning. Special thanks for Mellissa and the children for blessing us with their singing this morning...Much love to all of you...Today we’re starting a new series called God So Loved, and it’s about a gift that changed the world, which is the gift of Jesus. The Christmas season is about the gift of Jesus, it’s about a time in history when Jesus chose to enter human creation as our Savior, and over the next 3 weeks we’re gonna study the famous words of Jesus from John 3:16. Jesus said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Even if you’re not a Christian, you’re at least somewhat familiar with John 3:16 because of the signs sports fans hold up during football and basketball games...and by the end of this series, you’ll know exactly what that those John 3:16 signs mean, you’ll know exactly what that verse means.
So this series is called God So Loved, it’s based on John 3:16, and on Christmas Eve I’m gonna break that verse down in much greater detail than we’ll do over the next 3 weeks. There’s some incredible stuff in that one verse I won’t cover over the next 3 weeks, so you don’t want to miss Christmas Eve. In fact I’ve never been more excited to preach a message on Christmas Eve than the one I’m gonna preach this Christmas Eve. I highly encourage you not to miss it, and to take the invite cards on your seats to invite some friends and family, it’s gonna be a great service. That being said, let’s turn to John 3:16 and get into it. We’ll focus very briefly on the first part of John 3:16, then spend most of our time in Hosea 2:2-23 so you can see from a historical perspective, just how much God really does love the world. The title of today’s message is The World, and here’s the big idea. God so loved the world, and STILL loves the world!..God so loved the world, and STILL loves the world! I’ll give us some context as we go.
The Word:
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Now when Jesus says this he’s not saying it as a kind pleasantry, he’s actually in the middle of a conversation with a guy named Nicodemus, who you’ll learn more about on Christmas Eve. But for now just know he’s a very religious guy, he’s a Pharisee, which was a Jewish religious leader kind of like a pastor. So when Jesus says God so loved the world, he would’ve heard it as an infinitely holy God so loved the world. By infinitely holy I mean God’s completely set apart from us when it comes to sin. We’re sinful and unholy, God’s sinless and holy. We have finite moments where we don’t sin and do holy things, but God’s infinitely sinless and always does holy things. So when Jesus says God so loved the world he’s not talking about the loveliness of the world as if the world’s worth loving because it’s not. I know in our me-centered culture we have a selfie theology thinking God should love us because we’re worth loving, but that’s not the case. Jesus isn’t talking about the loveliness of the world, he’s talking about the loveliness of an infinitely holy God who’s loved a sinfully unholy world
In fact the word “world” is used over 60 times in John’s gospel, and it’s almost always used in negative ways. Just a few verses down from John 3:16 Jesus says this in John 3:19, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.” Jesus says the people, the world, they “loved the darkness” and “their works were evil.” This being only a few verses down from John 3:16! So when Jesus says God so loved the world, he’s not talking about the loveliness of the world, he’s talking about the loveliness of an infinitely holy God who’s loved a sinfully unholy world, which would’ve been unfamiliar to Nicodemus. As a Jewish religious leader it would’ve been more if Jesus said God so loved “the Jews,” not God so loved “the world.” But what Jesus is teaching him is that God’s love has always been intended to spread beyond the Jews, to the world.
Now to really appreciate what Jesus is saying I want to give us a historical example of the undeserving love God’s shown the Jews throughout history. So let’s turn to Hosea 2:2-23, and as you’re turning there let me give you a little context. Historically Hosea was considered a Jewish prophet primarily between 753-715 B.C, during a time when the Northern Kingdom of Israel was heavily involved in sin and the worship of idols. So in Ch. 1 we learn God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer as an example of Israel’s adulterous relationship with God, Hosea does it, and what follows is the story of a real historical marriage where Gomer keeps committing adultery on Hosea, she keeps sleeping around on him. But Hosea keeps loving her, he keeps remaining faithful to her, as an example of God still loving Israel and remaining faithful to Israel despite their unfaithfulness to God. So as we read Hosea 2, we have to remember we’re dealing with a real historical marriage, but it’s a marriage that has great spiritual implications for the Israelites and us. It’s a great picture of God’s undeserving love for the world. Let’s check it out.
Hosea 2:2-23 states this, “Plead with your mother, plead for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband, that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; 3 lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. 4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. 5 For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’” Bet you won’t see those verses on a hallmark card...“Put away your whoring. Merry Christmas!..” There’s some very strong words being said here, but it’s because God’s using the severity of Gomer’s adulterous relationship with Hosea to expose the severity of Israel’s adulterous relationship with God. Hosea says multiple times his wife’s “whoring” around with other men. Can you imagine how Hosea felt? Can you imagine the deep anger and sadness he felt over his wife continually leaving him for other men?..God’s saying that’s how He feels when Israel, when we continually leave Him for other things. God feels deep anger and sadness over us continually leaving Him to seek pleasure from other things. But God so loved the world, and still loves the world.
Vs. 6, “Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. 7 She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’ 8 And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.” Baal is a reference to a non-Jewish Canaanite god who was primarily worshiped by the Canaanites for giving them rain and crops. Historically what happened was the Israelites got some of the things listed in the text like food, wine, and oil, and they started worshiping Baal for those things. But in vs. 8 God says it was Him, not Baal who gave them those things. Now at the Hosea and Gomer level God’s saying “Hosea, your wife Gomer’s sleeping around with other men, she’s not being cared for. So I want you to go to the store, get her some food, water, and clothing. I want you to provide for her.” That must’ve been very hard for Hosea to do. But he does it anyways, and what’s Gomer do? She thanks the man she’s currently sleeping with, not Hosea. She wraps her arms around this other guy, hugs him, kisses him, gives him love instead of Hosea...Can you feel the weight of that, the heaviness in Hosea’s heart?..It’s the heaviness in God’s heart when we do that to Him. “Yeah but Pastor I don’t do that to God.” Oh yes you do. You and I both give our love to other Baals rather than God. We might not give our love to a literal Baal rain god, but we give our love to success, promotions, educational achievements, nice houses, cars, spend beyond our means during Christmas satisfying our consumerism gods. We most certainly have our moments where we give our love to other things rather than to God who’s given us everything. You and I, we’re Gomer...We’re all Gomer sometimes giving our love to other things, rather than God. But God so loved the world, and still loves the world.
Vs. 9, “Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. 10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. 11 And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. 12 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. 13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord.” Again these are some pretty strong words being said here. In vs. 11 God says “I will put an end to all her mirth,” which in the original Hebrew means “gladness,” then in vs.13 He says “I will punish her,” meaning He will punish Israel for her adulterous love. He’s gonna take away her gladness so she can realize just how IMPOTENT Baal really is to bring her joy. Sometimes God will do that, He’ll take away our gladness so we’ll realize how impotent the things we chase after really are in bringing us lasting joy. Now let’s be honest, that doesn’t sit right with us. I mean God’s clearly angry and taking things away from the Israelites because of their sin, and that just doesn’t sit right with us. It’s because we’d much rather hear about God’s love than God’s anger. We live in a culture today where “tolerance” is the new buzzword, and we think everything should be tolerated. So the thought of God not tolerating sin, getting angry over sin, using words like “punish,” it doesn’t sit well with us. You can even hear the influence of our tolerance culture on some Christians who say things like, “Well I don’t follow a God like that, because the God I know is loving. He’s not angry, He doesn’t punish, He’s loving.”
But here’s the thing, if you say God doesn’t punish sin, then you’re actually saying God isn’t loving, and here’s why. It’s because sin hurts...Sin hurts deeply, like we’ve been studying in the text. Sin hurts, it damages relationships, it separates relationships, and do you really want to worship a god who can care less about that?..Do you really want to worship a god who’s willing to sit back and do nothing while sin cuts us and our relationships deeply?..Yet that’s exactly the type of tolerant unloving god many people in our culture are worshiping, and the great hypocrisy of it is nobody believes it’s a good idea to raise children without disciplinary punishments, or to create a society where criminals don’t get punished for breaking the law. Not a single one of us believes it’s a good idea to raise children or create a punish free society, so let’s not put that tolerant ideology on God either. We should be praising the God of the bible for loving us enough to get angry over sin, loving us enough to not overlook the very sins that are cutting us and our relationships deeply. The God of the bible loves us enough to punish sin, and He loves us enough to give us hope despite our sin, which is where the text goes next. God is about to give us some hope despite our sin. It’s because God so loved the world, and still loves the world!
Vs. 14, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. 15 And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.” Notice the change in God’s tone here. It’s a tone from punishment for sin, to restoration from sin. It’s the tone of a husband wanting to restore his marriage with his wife, in this case God’s wanting to restore His marriage with adulterous Israel. God says I will “allure her” and “speak tenderly” to her. The Hebrew word for allure means “to attract,” meaning God doesn’t want to force them to love Him, He wants to allure them, attract them with His love. It’s incredible if you think about it! Gomer, the Israelites, they’ve done nothing to earn God’s love. Israel’s not alluring, attracting, pursuing God, it’s God who’s alluring, attracting, pursuing Israel. It’s the complete opposite of every other religion in the world. Every other religion in the world makes your salvation and relationship with God about you alluring God by doing good deeds, which you constantly fail at because of your adulterous heart. It’s only the God of the bible who says “It’s not you who allures me; it’s me who allures you. It’s not you who pursues me, it’s me who pursues you, even despite your sinful adulterous heart!” But He doesn’t just pursue us, He also gives us hope. In vs. 15 He says He’ll make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. The Valley of Achor was considered a “valley of trouble,” a place where Israel committed major sins against God, and God’s saying “I’m gonna take those sins, that valley of trouble and turn it into a door of hope.” City Awakening there’s not a single person in this room, our city, or in your family and friendships whose sin is so great, who’s valley is so dark, that God can’t turn it into a valley of hope! God can turn anyone’s life into a valley of hope! He did it for the Israelites, and He can do it for you and anyone you know, because God so loved the world, and STILL loves the world!
Vs. 16, “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.” Again notice the marital restorative language coming from God. He says 3 times “I will betroth you,” which in Hebrew means a binding permanent relationship. The picture God’s giving us of His restorative love is one where we’re completely forgiven of our sins, we’re given a fresh start like a newly married couple on their wedding day. It’s because when God forgives, He forgives. He doesn’t hold grudges throwing things back in our faces like we do to others. When God forgives, He forgives us fully, completely, and betroths us with a fresh start.
Vs. 21, “And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, 22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, 23 and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people;’ and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’” Hosea’s predicting Israel’s future return to God here, and once again it’s the result of God, not the result of Israel. It starts with God having mercy on them and calling them my people, then the Israelites respond by saying You are my God. The restoration starts with God, not the Israelites. Hosea’s predicting they’ll not only respond faithfully to God’s alluring love, but they’ll also be scattered to spread God’s alluring love to the world. In vs. 22 he calls Israel Jezreel which means “to plant,” and in vs. 23 he says God will sow her, meaning God will scatter the remaining faithful Israelites to spread His alluring love to the world. Why would God do that? It’s so others can enjoy His alluring love as well. It’s because God so loved the world, and STILL loves the world. It’s the very lesson Jesus is teaching Nicodemus in John 3:16. He’s teaching Nicodemus that God’s love has always been intended to spread beyond the Jews, and that God loves the sinful adulterous world, with the same love He loved adulterous Israel with.
The Big Idea:
Let’s have the worship team come up and get to the big idea. Here’s the big idea. God so loved the world, and still loves the world!..God so loved the world, and STILL loves the world, because He’s still offering us the undeserving gift of Jesus, even despite having sinful adulterous hearts like Gomer and the Israelites. Jesus is a gift, he’s the climax of God’s alluring love for us.
See in Hosea 3:1-2 God tells Hosea to “buy” Gomer back. She’s in slavery now, but Hosea buys her back, which is how God’s love works with us. God allures us, woos us, attracts us with His love, but we’re forever enslaved by our sinful adulterous hearts until God pays the price for our sins, which Jesus does. Jesus died the death we deserved to die for our sins, he stood in our place on the cross and said “It’s finished,” meaning our sin debt’s been paid in full allowing us to enjoy a fully restored relationship with God. Jesus bought us back with his very own life even though we didn’t deserve it. God provided for humanity giving us trees in the forest and the iron in the ground, but we turned those things into an axe that cut down the trees, and used the iron to nail Jesus to the very trees he blessed us with. We don’t deserve God’s love just like Gomer and Israel didn’t deserve God’s love, but Jesus loved us so much he was willing to buy us back with his life. The love he poured out on the cross is way more alluring than the unloving tolerant god of our culture, and the good deeds god of other religions. A god who’s tolerant of sin or requires you to earn his love when you keep failing to live out good deeds, isn’t a loving god at all. But a God who doesn’t tolerate sin and who’s willing to take the punishment of your sins...now that’s a loving God worthy of worship...That’s a loving God who’s worthy of YOUR worship...That God is Jesus, and he’s still offering us the gift of his underserving love today, even despite our sinful adulterous hearts. It’s because God so loved the world, and STILL loves the world! Let’s stand and worship him, and let’s be allured by His great love on the cross.