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“What Does John 3:16 Mean for You?
John 3:14-18

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas

Fourth Sunday in Lent—March 15, 2015

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Next time you are in a motel room, look in the front of the Gideons Bible.  There you will find extra pages with one Bible verse translated into dozens of different languages: Chinese, French, Arabic, Korean, Italia, Vietnamese, Swedish, Russian, Japanese, German, English, and many, many more.  This special Bible verse is known from memory by millions or even billions around the world.  There are 31,175 verses in the Bible, and this one verse is certainly the most familiar, the most beloved.  Of course, it is John 3:16.  Let’s say it together: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Perhaps this verse is so familiar that we take it for granted, and don’t really think about what it means.  So this morning we ask: What does John 3:16 mean for YOU?

People are often surprised to discover that this most familiar verse is the Bible is immediately preceded and introduced by a reference to one of the least familiar Old Testament Bible stories:  “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.”

We heard this Bible story in today’s Old Testament Reading.  God rescues his chosen people and brings them out of slavery in Egypt.  In the wilderness he gives them manna and quail to eat and water from out of the rock to drink.  But, they are ungrateful, and they grumble against Moses and against God himself:  “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

They no longer have faith in Moses, or faith in God himself.  As punishment for their falling away from faith, for their rebellion and their ungratefulness, God allows the snakes in the wilderness to bite the people, and many of them die. 

Like those ancient people in the wilderness, YOU AND I have rebelled against the Lord our God.  We too are often ungrateful.  We too grumble against God.  Because of our sin, our evil, our rebellion, our ungratefulness, we too deserve punishment, we too deserve death.

The people in the wilderness repent and confess their sin to Moses: “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.”  God has compassion on them and he gives Moses an unusual cure for snake bites: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’  So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.”

God also has compassion you, he also gives you a cure for your sin, a remedy to save you from death: “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.” The bronze snake hanging on a pole in the desert is a picture prophecy.  It points forward to the Savior, hanging on a cross.  Just as everyone who looked at the bronze snake was cured and lived, everyone who looks to the Son of God and believes in him has eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten 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.” 

With his obedience, Jesus paid for the rebellion of the whole world.  With his blood, Jesus paid for the sin of the whole world, including you and me.  No one is left out, no one is excluded from God’s love.  On the cross of Calvary Jesus shed his blood for me, for you, for all people: “For God so loved the world.”

What does John 3:16 mean for you?  It says for certain: God loves you; God forgives you.  He loves and forgives you because his Son died for you.  God so loved YOU that he sent his only-begotten Son, that YOU would believe in him, and YOU would have eternal life.  God did not send his Son into the world to condemn you, but to save you through him.

Like the ancient people in the wilderness who looked at the bronze snake lifted up on a pole and lived, look at your Savior, lifted up on the cross.  Believe in him and have eternal life.  What does John 3:16 mean for you?  God shows his love for you on the cross.  God shows his love by giving his only-begotten Son to lay down his life for you.   There’s an old saying that puts it this way: “Jesus said, ‘I love you THIS MUCH’—and then he stretched out his arms and died.”

Millions, even billions, of people throughout the world cherish that familiar Bible verse, John 3:16.  For each and every person, that familiar Bible verse is a promise.  That familiar Bible verse is a promise for you.  A promise from God that YOU are forgiven; a promise from God that he loves you; a promise from God himself that YOU shall not perish but have eternal life.

“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.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten 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. Whoever believes in him is not condemned.”

That is what John 3:16 means for YOU!

Amen.

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