THE GREATEST GIFT
Introduction: There is not much
uplifting and faith-building material on the TV to watch. Wilma and I were
challenged this week as we watched a TV series: “Walk With Me: When War Comes
To Your Door. It is the incredible story of Carolyn Figlioli, a missionary who
took care of 150 children during the recent Civil War in 2016 in South Sudan.
Are you looking for a faith-building story? I encourage you to watch this TV series.
IRIS ministries are demonstrating
the Love of God in action in the world since 1980. Here is a quote from its
founder, “We want to do much more than building roads, buildings, and schools.
We just want Him. We want to be deeply, deeply in love with Him. Where people
fall more madly and deeply in love with Jesus Christ, not losing their first
love but intensifying it more and more, Heaven will come to earth and lives
will be changed.” Rolland Baker
Christmas is a season of giving
gifts to one another. What would be a better gift to give than feeding the
poor, clothing the naked, and ministering to the broken-hearted? On this fourth
Sunday of Advent, we will look at when God wanted to give humanity a gift of
love, how He packaged it, and how that gift became the Greatest Gift of all
times to all people.
Appropriately the fourth candle we
light today is called the “Candle of Love.” Today’s focus is on how God expressed
His love for humanity that is desperately searching for love. I want to expand
on the scope and the purpose of God’s Greatest Gift so that our Christmas
celebrations will be more meaningful, purposeful, hopeful. John 3:16-20
Background: As Christians, we can all quote John 3:16
by heart, but do we understand what context those most potent words were said?
Let me draw your attention to a conversation between a highly learned Pharisee
and Jesus. The Pharisee’s name was Nicodemus, a respected Jewish teacher in the
community. He came to Jesus at night. Why not in the daylight?
Perhaps he was afraid of his fellow
Jews or embarrassed about not knowing the answers to some of his questions.
Nicodemus here is a prototype of a seeker with burning questions searching for
answers. Jesus stands here as the only one who can answer life’s complicated
questions. Jesus never made fun of Nicodemus’s ignorance. He respected his
leadership position. Vs. 10, Jesus
replied, “you are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand
these things? He gently led him to a revelation of the need to be Born Again.
In that unique context of personal salvation, Jesus unfolded God’s Greatest
Gift of love for all people.
I.
GOD’S GIFT IS FOR ALL PEOPLE
John
3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son so
that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” This
one verse conveys the essence and the scope of the Good News of the Gospel. Let
me explain this scripture further.
Vs. 16, “For this is how God loved
the World.” This verse is consistent with God’s nature of love and very much in
line with His promise to Abraham. It talks about the all-inclusive love of God.
In other words, no place or persons on the earth are outside God’s range of love.
Genesis 12:1-3, “The Lord had said
to Abram, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will
make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless
you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be
blessed through you.” From one-man named Abraham, God made a nation of people
called “Israel.”
Isaiah 49:5-6, the Lord speaks of
His servant’s mission, referring to Jesus the Lord’s Son. “And now the Lord
speaks the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who
commissioned me to bring Israel back to him.
The Lord has honored me, and my God
has given me strength. He says, “You will do more than restore the people of
Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my
salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Jewish teachers often emphasized God’s
extraordinary love for Israel. However, His self-sacrificing love for the world
exceeds that love. To fulfill this promise, God sent his Son to the earth when
the fullness of time came. Galatians 4:4-5, “But when the right time came, God
sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom
for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own
children.” (sons and daughters).
II.
GOD’S GIFT IS LIMITED
Vs. 16b, “So that everyone who
believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” At face value, it looks
like this contradicts the notion of God’s gift is for all people. Though God’s gift
is extended to all people, only those who believe would get to enjoy the
benefits of that gift. In other words, not all people, but only those who
believe in Christ will be saved.
This limited salvation stands in
contrast to the Universalists’ popular belief that God would save all humanity.
No doubt, God wants all people to be saved, but would all believe in Christ to
be saved? It is yet to be seen. Consider the following scriptures. Matthew
7:13-14, “You can enter God’s
Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its
gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very
narrow, and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”
Let me illustrate. There used to be
a famous gospel tract depicting two ways. One was a Broadway; so many people were
traveling on it. They seemed to be enjoying life, reveling in sinful pleasures.
But in the end, that road leads to a fiery hell; all those who entered it
perished.
There was another way, relatively narrow,
hilly, and filled with obstacles; only a few were found traveling on it. That narrow
road leads through a vast cross climaxing it in Heaven. All those who traveled that narrow way lived
to enjoy life in Heaven forever. As a young person, that tract used to terrify
me so much until I found myself traveling on the narrow way.
That is how many people are wasting
their lives, traveling on Broadway. Not realizing that they will end up in hell
unless they change the course of their direction. Only a few will believe in
the truth and will find the courage to travel the narrow path. Are you on Broadway
or the narrow way? It is never too late to change your direction if you are on Broadway.
We learned that the angels
proclaimed the good news of great joy to all people on the first Christmas day.
The shepherds took it further in that region by telling everyone the same.
Subsequently, that good news has been proclaimed all over the world. Yet, many
still refuse to believe and come to accept the truth of the Gospel. Let’s see
verses 19-20 to find why?
III
THE WICKEDNESS OF HUMAN HEART
John 3:19-20, “And the judgment is based on
this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more
than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and
refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.”
One of the main reasons why people
refuse to come to light is the wickedness of their hearts. Somehow, they love
darkness more than light. They think that living a sinful life is more
appealing and enjoyable than doing the right thing by living in the light. Many
enjoyed evil during Noah’s time until God judged the world by sending a
universal flood. Genesis 7
The scripture tells us that before
the second advent of Jesus, the world will be like Noah’s days before the
flood. People will be enjoying banquets and parties and weddings.
Matt 24:37. How is God going to deal
with the wickedness of our generation? Will he judge the world as he did during
Noah’s time? He will judge one day but not necessarily the way He did it at
that time.
The good news is that we are living
in a grace period. God is offering an olive branch to all those who are
continually rebelling against Him. Because of His great love for the world, He sent
His only begotten Son not to condemn or judge the world but through Him save
the world.
IV.
THE GREATEST GIFT
What does the world need now? Love.
Now more than ever! When God wanted to show how much He loved the world, He
gave His only Son, Jesus Christ. In obedience to the call of God on His life,
Jesus showed His love by giving His very life on the Cross for sinners like you
and me so that we can be saved from eternal death in hell and live with Him in
Heaven forever.
In Verse 16, we read, all those who
believe in Him will not perish but have eternal life. In other words, if you
believe in Jesus, you will be saved. If we know what we will be protected from,
we will be quick to receive this gift and be immensely grateful for it.
Like the new Vaccine, if you know
you will be protected from contracting the COVID-19 virus so that you could
potentially live to see another day, would you not be quick to accept and be
grateful for it? The only thing is that even after taking this Vaccine, people
will die one day. Our concern is not so
much on escaping our first death, as we all have to die one day. But it should
be on what the Bible calls the second death.
Rev 20:12-15, “I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s
throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead
were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.
The sea gave up its dead, and death
and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds.
Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of Fire. This lake of Fire
is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book
of Life was thrown into the lake of Fire.” So, do you now know from what you
will be saved?
Jesus came to save us from that
eternal Fire. Our souls’ salvation from that eternal destruction by far is the
greatest gift that God could ever give to sinful humanity. You may be wondering
how you could receive this most incredible gift? There is nothing you and I can
do to obtain it except receive it by faith and be grateful for it for the rest
of our lives. Amen!
