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JOHN 3:16

Today we are going to look at one of the most

sublime, glorious texts of Scripture. John 3:16 –
(shorthand for) The Gospel of Jesus written by the
Apostle John, Chapter 3, verse 16 – has been
called ‘the gospel in a nutshell’, ‘or the whole
Bible concentrated in one text’, the centre of
Scriptures and so on. Superlatives abound.

Now to help us understand John 3:16 I have

divided my sermon into 3 paragraphs. Three
points if you like. Each paragraph starts with the
letter ‘L’ – this alliteration will help us to
understand and remember and respond.

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Firstly, I want to speak of LITERATURE.

This morning we read from an English Bible. If

say we were in Holland we would have read from
a Dutch Bible…a Xhosa congregation would have
used Xhosa and so on – Now the question is, with
all these Bibles is the message the same?

The answer is decidedly yes! Whatever is the

spoken language and written language, the N.T.
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is based on the Greek text. The Greek text or the

Greek N.T. is a work that is carefully monitored
by the United Bible Societies (I have my Greek
N.T. here if anyone would like to see it after the
service). As a research group they are “open” –
anyone can visit the Bible Society and see the
Greek N.T. You can even purchase one.

But Jesus did not speak Greek. He spoke

Aramaic. It was the common language of
Palestine in N.T. times.
So if Aramaic was largely restricted to Palestine –
and it was – help was at hand! The help at hand
was the ‘Greek language’. And the disciples of
Jesus knew from Jesus’ message that His
Message should be proclaimed to the ends of the
earth – and so the message of Jesus was
transcribed from Aramaic into Greek. So through
the medium of language, the message of Jesus
was moved from local (Palestine) to international
(the world).l

So here you have Jesus speaking John 3:16 in

Aramaic. John later records it in another
language. You and I read it in still another
language – couldn’t something in all this go
wrong? To put it bluntly – is this text correct? Do
I need to defend the Bible?
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The answer is emphatically no! God has given us

two “checks” that ensure the text of Scripture is
correct. Firstly, there is the ‘Godward check’ and
secondly there is the ‘manward’ check or test.

The Godward test is this. Later on in John 16:13

Jesus promises His disciples that the gift of the
Holy Spirit will guide them into all truth. The
Spirit will ensure accuracy.

The manward test is that God has placed the

Bible publically in the world. In fact to illustrate
this you can go to C.N.A. and buy a Bible. There
are in fact very few places in the world where the
Bible or the message of the Bible is not known.
So there are many eyes – and a lot of them
hostile – fixed on the Bible for one mistake to go
unnoticed. IMPOSSIBLE.

Let me give you one illustration of how the public

domain or manward test works. Recently a so-
called ‘gospel of Judas’ was brought to light.
Christian scholars claimed it was post – New
Testament writings – at variance with certain
Christian Bible truths and definitely not literature
that should have been included in the N.T.

O yes Christians are aware that sometimes slight

textual variations of a verse or that some of the
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O.T. numbers contradict. But our modern Bibles

indicate these things – but of the central
message of the Bible, namely that God sent His
Eternal Son to die on Calvary – here there is no
doubt, no ambiguity. No murkiness at all.

When I was a schoolboy I would, every now and

then, pretend to be ill so that I didn’t have to go
to school. I would feign sickness to avoid school.
Many people today feign problems with the Bible
– for no other reason than they know the
teaching of Scripture is true. They know the
message of the Bible is binding on their lives.
They try to escape from its message so they
feign problems.

Just as little fleas clinging to an elephant’s leg will

not stop its stride – so perceived problems with
the Bible will not, will not keep the Bible from its
mighty advance in the world. Many a hammer
has been worn out attacking the Bible.

I want to close this point. I’m sure this morning

as the text was read many followed in various
Bible translations. Perhaps some had the K.J.V.
or the N.I.V. or the E.S.V…so people like to talk of
many Bibles in the English language. This is
loose talk. Very unhelpful. We need to correct
that – there is one Bible but many translations –
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be it of the paraphrase type or the stricter, near

to the literal text, type. But there are many
translations and that is largely due to the
expanse and growth of the English language.
Just the other day I read that had William
Shakespeare come to life today – he would have
been semi-literate. The English language just
keeps growing and growing!
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Now we go to our second paragraph – LOVE.

The Scripture says ‘For God so loved the world…’

These are glorious words. Great words. ‘God so

loved the world…’

Now I want to say three things (not enough)

about the love of God…

• Firstly, the text tells us God’s love first. God’s

love foremost. God and His Love at the
forefront… This God of Love initiates salvation:
He is the Author. He is the Source. One
theologian put it like this – “If God requires my
salvation, He must provide it.” He has taken
the initiative… He does because of His Love.
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• Further, God’s love is more than words – He

gave His Son. Now when Jesus says that ‘God
gave’ the principle teaching here is the Cross of
Christ. While the whole Christ-event was God’s
love in action- here in 3:16 it is chiefly the
Cross of Calvary that is in view.

• Also when Jesus speaks of God’s love, we must

understand it was to propitiate His Holiness.
That is His Supreme Gloriousness, Perfection,
His Majesty Pure and Spotless would be upheld.
He was satisfied.

God does not offer us salvation on the cheap –

salvation is not about how low can God go – but
rather maintaining His Righteousness as an
expression of His Love. Holy Love.

God gave His One and Only Son. The K.J.V.

speaks of ‘His Only Begotten Son…’ The E.S.V.
has ‘His Only Son’… the Greek word is
monogenĕs.

Now this word ‘monogenĕs’ occurs 5 times in

the writings of John. On the one hand it is a
Greek word that is difficult to pin down to a few
English words – but essentially the idea behind
the word is that of Trinitarian Sonship. Jesus is
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the uncreated, eternal Son of God. See how

much God loves us. He gave His best.

Behold what manner of love is this…

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Now we come to our third paragraph –

LESSON

Now here is the lesson. Whoever believes in Him

shall not perish but have eternal life.

\what God has done in Christ calls for our trust –

our commitment – our lives in fact. We displace
self and enthrone Him.

And those who will take His Name to their lives –

the Scriptures are clear, the demands of
discipleship are strenuous but they are also
joyful. To take up your Cross and follow Him is to
be like Jesus in this world.

But those who do not believe in Him will perish.

Those who spurn God’s offer in Christ will receive
His wrath…

The tragedy of the final judgement for those who

did not honour Christ is that God will give them
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what they have chosen. What you have sought,

you will find – nothing more and nothing less.
You will get what you set your heart on!
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John Newton (Old English)

What think ye of Christ? Is the test

To try both your state and your scheme
You cannot be right in the rest
Unless you think rightly of Him
As Jesus appears to your view
And He is beloved or not
So God is disposed to you –
And mercy or wrath is your lot

Some take Him a creature to be –

A man, or an angel at most
But they have not feelings like me
Nor know themselves wretched and lost
So guilty, so helpless am I
I dare not confide in His blood
Nor on His protection rely –
Unless I were sure He is God.
In Arthur Wallis:
Jesus of Nazareth. Who is He? - p.49
F.F. Bruce: The Books and the Parchments… -
p.170, 171
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