God, the Father Who Loves - Sermon by Canon James Juhari

4th Sunday of Lent (10 March 2024)

Old Testament Reading: Numbers 21.4-9

Epistle Reading: Ephesians 2.1-10

Gospel Reading: John 3.14-21

SERMON

2“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3: 16).

3The setting of this text is in the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, a Pharisee who came at night. He has come to Jesus in an attempt to figure Him out. He has come to the conclusion that Jesus could not do what He did unless He has come from God. He has a good understanding of who Jesus was, and yet in the conversation with Jesus, Nicodemus found that believing in Jesus could be very difficult. Ironically, it was difficult only because Jesus made it simple, when He said, “You must be born again. You need to be born of the Spirit.” For Nicodemus, salvation involved complicated dedication to the Law, but what Jesus was telling him was too simple that it became too difficult to believe.

Nicodemus’ struggle is the struggle of many people even until today. Believers in God have ascribed many qualities to Him and yet can still live in ways that deny that belief. For example, they believe that God is the Creator. 4But, instead of worshipping God, they worship things God had created. I am sure Nicodemus believed that God is omnipotent (all-powerful). But he was struggling to understand the limitless power of God. 5When Jesus told him, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” (vv.5-6). And Nicodemus asked “How can this be?” 

All of us have certain thoughts about how God does His work in relation to our personal lives. 6So, whenever we are given new facts, we tend to ask the same question that Nicodemus was asking: “How can it be?” People who believe in one God will ask: How can God be Father, Son and Holy Spirit and yet is still One? Those who believe God is almighty ask, “If God is Almighty, why did He allow Jesus to suffer on the cross?” Or on a more personal level: “If God loves me, why is He not answering my prayers?”

We, as finite human beings, cannot know everything about God, but we can know Him because Jesus has revealed Him to us. 7Jesus said this in Matthew 11:27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him”. Anything beyond what Jesus has revealed to us are simply guess works.

8Let us begin our study with verse 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: 16 speaks of God as the all-loving One. It has been called the greatest verse in the Bible, and often quoted in sermons, used at posters and placards, even at sport events. But what does it mean?

9First, this verse tells us that the initiative in all salvation lies with God. This teaching is in contrast to the teachings of many religions in this world, which say that God has to be pacified and be persuaded to forgive. There are even Christians who picture God as a stern, angry, unforgiving Deity, especially when they go through hard times; even though they may see Jesus as gentle, loving, forgiving person. But this text tells us that it was with God that it all started. It was God who sent his Son, and He sent Him because He loved the world. At the back of everything is the love of God.

10Second, this verse tells us that the mainspring of God's being is love. It is easy to think of God as One, who is ever ready to discipline and punish us because of our disobedience and rebellion, until we come back to Him. We live in a country where majority of the people believe that religion is about keeping believers under control and threats of punishment. There are Christians who always think of bad things happening in their lives as God’s punishment. Not every bad thing that is happening in your life is punishment from God. Our God is not a dictator who treats each person as a subject to be reduced to abject obedience. Our God is the Father who patiently waits for His wandering children to come home. Our God does not punish us into submission; He calls and draws us into His love.

11Third, it tells us of the width of the love of God. It is the world that God so loved. It is not a nation, or just the good people, or only the Christians and people who love Him: it is the world. God loves the unlovable and the unlovely. God loves the lonely who have no one else to love them. God loves both the persons who are devoted to Him, and those who never think of Him. God loves both the person who puts his trust in His love and the one who rejects His love.

But this can only be known through our relationship with Jesus. That is why we believe in Jesus. The reasons are found in John 3:14-21. 12Let us look at verses 14-15: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”. What does that mean?  

Our OT reading (Numbers 21: 4-9) tells us about the Israelites who had been complaining against God, grumbling about the journey and their apparent lack of food and water. They no longer liked the manna God gave them day after day. And so God punished them by sending fiery serpents among them, and many of those who were bitten died. But God provided a salvation for His disobedient people, so that they might survive the divine judgment. 13He instructed Moses to make a serpent of bronze and to set it on a pole, so that anyone who was bitten by one of the snakes could merely look up at the bronze serpent and be healed. And this was precisely what happened. All who were bitten and looked up were healed.

14The story tells us two things. First, sin has consequences. The evil and sufferings we see in this world are largely self-inflicted (i.e., due to the choices we have made). Or they may be the the results what other people have done. Some of these sufferings that we have to go through can be described as punishments for what we or others have done. Second, when God punishes us for our sins, He still exercises His love. Even when He punished Adam and Eve for what they had done, He showed His love for them (read Genesis 3:21). 15Paul describes it like this in Romans 5:6-8: “6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.      

In the story in Numbers, no matter how many times they had been bitten, or how serious their situations were, the opportunity for salvation was there. All they needed to do was to look up at the bronze snake on the hilltop. In the very same way today, even the worst of sinners can receive salvation through Jesus. All that he needs to do is to look to Christ to be saved, and he does not need to have a perfect faith to receive salvation.  

16Third, we must believe in Jesus because He becomes our salvation. Verses 16-17: “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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” This means that Salvation comes through Jesus alone. For Nicodemus, this was something new. He only knew that salvation had something to do with being religious and being a good person.

Salvation is for everybody because it has been God’s purpose for all people to be saved. But in order for them to be saved, God had to do it through a Messiah. So the Messiah was sent to the world through a nation of His choosing - the Jews. The whole story about God and His people in the Bible is part of the grand plan of God for the people of the world. 17But there are people who will ask: what about those who do not believe in Jesus? How can they be saved? They have to be perfect humans in order to be saved. The Bible tells us that there will be some awful eternal consequences. We can avoid them by doing either one of the two things: (I) we must be perfect; or (ii) we accept the love that God has shown to us through Jesus.

18Fourth, Jesus did not come to judge the world. But if we do not believe in Jesus and accept the salvation He offered, we shall be judged. In John 3: 18-21, Paul says: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world”…and…”whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” 19Jesus is the Light who both reveals and condemns. Light reveals the righteousness of righteous men. But light also exposes the sins of sinners. There are three major events that we celebrate or commemorate every year: Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. We celebrate Christmas to welcome baby Jesus who brought light to the world. We commemorate Good Friday because we believe in God who suffered and died on a cross for our sake. We celebrate Easter because we believe in life after death. 

20And we are not doing these to maintain our age-old tradition. These are opportunities for us to share with others God’s message about Christ being born, lived, crucified, died and rose again. God has done all the difficult parts: all they need to do is to to accept what God has done for them.  

 It is also a constant reminder to us Christians. It easy to get so comfortable where we are that we forget how much God loves us. But if you are struggling, it is also easy to feel that God has abandoned you to deal with your own problems and worries. I want you to remember that God’s loves is like the sun: it continues to shine whether it is night or day, whether the sky is cloudy or clear. God’s love stays the same no matter what our circumstances are. Remember too that light is more powerful than darkness; love is stronger than hate; and eternal life is more important than this earthly life. 

~Can. James Juhari~