Scripture: John 3:16
Sermon Series: John 3:16: God’s Love Language – Sermon 05

Do you have emotional triggers? Most of us do. Emotional triggers are stimuli—people, words, or situations—that provoke intense negative emotional reactions rooted in past trauma, fear, or unresolved experiences.

For example, a car backfiring might cause a spike of anxiety because it reminds you of a gunshot experience. Visiting a hospital can trigger memories of the pain of losing a loved one.

Words can be emotional triggers. We find one in John 3:16 with that phrase: His only Son.” If there is a son, there is a father. For many father or dad is an emotional trigger. In fact, this may be the toughest phrase to wrap our minds and emotions around in John 3:16. Many suffer from what’s called “father hunger.” With the breakdown of the family, it’s growing worse. The thought of God as a father can bring up painful memories.

One of our greatest inner longings is for a father’s love. “Father hunger” can be a lifelong craving for affirmation, protection, leadership, and unconditional acceptance that should come from a dad.

Believing the truth of John 3:16 means the Christ-follower has a new father, God is their Father. “Father hunger” needs can be met, but not by a flesh-and-blood person. No matter how wonderful a human dad is, he falls short. There are no perfect earthly dads. There’s only one place we can turn for those father needs to be met. It’s a relationship with God the Father. It begins by accepting His Son as your Lord and Savior. God becomes our father. He’s the father we long for. With the sacrifice of His Son for us, God chose us, adopted us…despite all of our failures.

Adoption agencies tell us it’s much easier to find a home for a healthy baby than one with disabilities. Thankfully God didn’t adopt us because we were spiritually healthy. He chose us because of His unconditional love. Through Christ we became His sons and daughters, even though we’re a hot mess.

A.W. Tozer wrote, What comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. We’ll never know God the Father unless we first know His Son. We’ll never understand John 3:16 unless we know who Jesus is. An accurate understanding of the Son is vital.

No life has influenced our world more than the life of Christ. Every calendar His existence. The birth of Jesus split history into two parts. Everything that has happened on this planet falls into one of two categories. It’s either before or after Christ. It’s either before or after His Only Son.

The Bible describes how just before He went to the cross, Jesus prayed My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will (Matthew 26:39). Facing the agony of the wrath of God that was deserved for all the sins of world, Jesus asked that if there were any other way to bring about salvation. He asked three times. Don’t miss that after He finished this prayer, He went to the cross. There was no other way of salvation other than God the Father sacrificing His Son. Had there been another way, with the fervent pleading of Jesus, God the Father would have given it. Jesus went to the cross bearing our sins because it was the only way.

Last Sunday we saw how God loved the world so much that He gave. He didn’t just “say” He loved us; He demonstrated it by giving the only gift that would make us right with Him. All the ways we try to make ourselves right with God will never work. There was only one sacrifice that would suffice. Today we’re looking at the only gift that could save: His Only Son.

What does John 3:16 mean when it says that God loved us so much He gave His only Son? Let me forewarn you that we must delve a little bit into theology to explain this. We’ll never truly understand what God sacrificed unless we know who God’s only Son is. If you’re taking notes…

1. Jesus, His Only Son, is completely man. 

It wasn’t enough for God the Father to somehow “hand over” His Son. He had to come to earth, take on human flesh, and die on the cross. To do this, Jesus had to become what theologians call Incarnate. The word incarnate means in-flesh-ment.

God the Son is 100% God. To become a man, He didn’t abandon His Godhood. He was 100% man, so He could pay for our sins in His body.

This is vital: Jesus is 100% God and 100% man; He’s not 50% God and 50% man. He is fully God and fully Man, two natures in His one being. It’s makes Him unique. There has never been anyone one like Him.

This is not “theological trivia.” It’s vital. Jesus had to be like this to be our sacrifice and Savior. He had to be 100% God and 100% man. Max Lucado writes, When God chose to reveal Himself, He did so through a human body. The tongue that called forth the dead was a human one. The hand that touched the leper had dirt under its nails. The feet upon which the woman wept were calloused and dusty. And His tears…oh, don’t miss the tears…they came from a heart as broken as yours or mine ever has been.

Think about this for a moment. It means there’s no experience you go through that God the Son hasn’t gone through while wearing the same “earth suit” you wear every day. Have you ever been depressed? Jesus was, too. Have you ever experienced dread? Jesus did too. Have you ever laughed so hard your gut hurt? I believe Jesus did that as well. Most of us know what it feels like to be abandoned by a friend. Ever felt betrayed? Ever felt intensely weary? Been angry? Hungry? Thirsty? Lonely?

There’s no human experience that we go through where Jesus could not say, “been there, done that, got the T-shirt.” He was one of us. Hebrews 4:15 says, Jesus was, …tempted in every way, just as we are, yet He was without sin.

This means that when I pray I know I’m not talking to someone out of touch with my experiences. Since Jesus was fully man, we know that as the rest of Hebrews 4:15 says, In Jesus, I do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with my weaknesses. It means I can, draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. I can run to Jesus with my hurts and problems because I know He’s experienced them too. He faced what we face.

I’ve been the police chaplain for Burlington nearly 25 years. I’m glad that they don’t make me go through what cops have to go through as part of their training. They have to be tased and pepper sprayed. That enables them to understand what they it’s like if they must tase or pepper spray someone. They need to know what they might have to put someone else through.

God knows what we’re going through. He knows everything, including what we feel like. It’s easier for us to understand this because we know that in Jesus, God became one of us. He was completely human.

Did you know that among the more than 3,000 Americans who have received the Congressional Medal of Honor, there’s only one father/son combination? The father won it for a single act of bravery in a crucial battle during the Civil War. When he retired in 1909, he was the ranking officer in the United States Army and one of the most famous soldiers of his era.

His son headed up the U.S. forces in the Philippines in 1941. He led the brave defense of the Bataan peninsula. Though the battles fought there ended in defeat, the bravery displayed by the Americans and their leader inspired thousands of soldiers and sailors. So, who was it? General Douglas MacArthur, and his father, Arthur MacArthur, Jr. Both father and son made a military difference for our country. “Like father, like son.”

In a way far beyond what our finite minds can comprehend, with God the Father and God the Son, it’s “like father, like son.” Both loved us, both sacrificed for us so you and I could be forgiven and live eternally in heaven with Them. “Like father, like son” – what an awesome God we serve!

2. Jesus, His Only Son, is completely God. 

James Montgomery Boice explains what Jesus’ uniqueness means: Jesus is the unique Son of God; there is no one like Him, no one who is His equal. Therefore, because Jesus Christ is the very image of God, and there is no one like Him, when God gave Jesus, He gave the best gift in the universe. In other words, Jesus is a physical demonstration of the incredible value God places on us. God the Father gave the most cherished possession He had. He sent His only Son into this world to show how much He loved us.

Jesus was not just fully and completely man; He was at the same time fully and completely God. Throughout His earthly ministry Jesus claimed to be God. In John 10:30 He said, I and the Father are One. This claim is why the Jewish religious leaders arrested Him and sentenced Him to death. Jesus wasn’t crucified because He went around saying, Be nice to each other. He was crucified for claiming that He was God.

In the middle of some of Jesus’ most brilliant discourses, His sermons on ethics that had everyone saying, ‘Amen! This is the smartest person Who ever lived.’ In the middle of this, Jesus would say, Oh, and by the way, I am God’s Son, the Savior of the world. People must have thought, “Why did You have to include that? We were doing great. The Nielsen ratings were going up and now You have to say something like that. Why don’t You stick to Your basic teachings? Lay off all this deity stuff.”

But Jesus wouldn’t lay off the deity stuff. He repeatedly claimed to be God, the Messiah, Savior of the world and worthy of worship.

No other major religious leader made a statement like this. Jesus is unique in His claim to be God. Buddha never claimed to be God. Muhammad never identified himself as Allah. But Jesus, the humble Carpenter from Nazareth said, If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father (John 14:9).

In John 8:58, Jesus used the same name God used to identify Himself to Moses when He said, Truly, truly I say to you. Before Abraham was born, I AM. In several places in the Gospels, we find Jesus claiming the authority to forgive sins, which the Bible teaches is something that only God can do.

And His followers agreed with this claim. They recognized Jesus as God in the flesh, incarnate. Remember Peter’s bold affirmation and that of Thomas and others? Jesus’ disciples held so firmly to this conviction that they suffered martyr’s deaths rather than recant their belief that Jesus is God. They were convinced that Jesus was God and did things only God could do!

They watched from front row seats as He demonstrated power over nature by stilling stormy waves or turning water into wine. They saw Jesus exert power over physical disease and demons. He had the authority and power to raise the dead. Jesus never attended a funeral that He didn’t ruin by raising the corpse back to life. Jesus’ followers were not afraid to die for their belief in Him since they had witnessed Jesus’ resurrecting power.

Jesus was omnipotent/all powerful and like God, He was also omniscient, or all-knowing. He knew, as only God could know, what was in men’s minds before they spoke. John 2:25 says, Jesus did not need anyone to testify concerning man for He Himself knew what was in man.

Like God, Jesus is eternal. He’s always existed. Remember the beginning of John’s Gospel? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:1-3).

The most convincing proof that Jesus is God in human flesh is the fact that 2000 years after His crucifixion, we can still experience Him. Jesus as God not only raised dead people to life, but Jesus also rose on the third day. Because He did people all over the world still claim to know Him. And He’s still bringing those who are spiritually dead to life like me and you.

No wonder Napoleon said, I know men, and I tell you, Jesus Christ is not a mere man.

3. Jesus, His Only Son, is the supreme gift for a sinful world. 

The Bible from beginning to end is the record of God pursuing a relationship with humanity. The love of God can be felt in every word, on every page of the Bible. Someone said, Cut the Scriptures anywhere and they bleed with the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The sacrificial love of God in giving His only Son is the central point of the Bible. The thing that Jesus shows us most clearly about God is His love.

Love has never been a way of describing the relationship between a human being and their god. The Qur’an never uses the word love to God. Aristotle stated bluntly, It would be eccentric for anyone to claim that he loved Zeus. The Bible is so different. It clearly states that love is the reason Jesus was born. 1 John 4:9, This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.

There are echoes of Abraham and his son, Isaac, here. God gave Abraham and Sarah a son when they had dentures. Sarah was barren, Abraham was a geezer. Yet Isaac was born according to God’s promise.

Then a few years later God tested Abraham. He told Abraham: Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about (Genesis 22:2), and Abraham obeyed and did it.

As much as he loved his son, he loved God more. He showed the depth of his love by his willingness to sacrifice his only son. But God was only testing Abraham, so he stopped him before he killed Isaac. But the knife was already raised, and Abraham was ready to go through with it.

As we come to the New Testament, we learn that God has a Son. Jesus is God’s only Son.” Maybe you’re familiar with the King James translation, only begotten Son. Only begotten means “single, unique, one of a kind.” Jesus is uniquely God’s Son in a way no other person can ever be.

And wonderfully, when you put your faith in Christ, God adopts you into His family and you become a son or daughter of God. But you and I will never be a child of God in the same way Jesus is God’s Son. Jesus has always been God’s Son. He has always existed as God’s Son. Because He is God, Jesus shares God’s very essence. He’s the second person of the Trinity.

No parent can imagine sacrificing one of their own children for someone else. It’d be even more difficult if you only had one child. But God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son for us, His enemies. It’s shocking! It’d be one thing if we were worthy of such a sacrifice. We’re not. We’re all sinners who’ve rebelled against God and yet God the Father still gave His Son for us.

To be this sacrifice, God’s Son had to be like us in every way; 100% man, to die on the cross and pay for sin. He couldn’t be a sinner like us when He died on the cross. His offering on the cross had to be perfect and none of us are. It’s why only the God-Man could make this sacrifice.

It couldn’t be Mother Theresa or Billy Graham. It couldn’t have been you or me or the best person you’ve ever known. It had to be the Perfect Sacrifice of the God/Man to pay or atone for our sins and make us right with God.

It had to be “God’s only Son.” Jesus was the only one who could have done it. This was the one-and-only way! Heaven’s door has only one key and Jesus holds it. Jesus is able to save from the uttermost to the guttermost.

While it’s helpful to know God loves and lavishes us with His love, none of it will matter until we lean into Him: …that whoever believes in Him…

Aren’t you glad whoever is in this verse?  God loves the whole world. That means everyone. He offers salvation to whoever, which means you!    

To believe means to, trust in, rely on and lean into.  It means to fully surrender to the Savior, to give yourself up to Him, to take yourself out of your own keeping and entrust yourself into His.

The only way for sinners to be saved is by repenting and receiving the Savior, by leaning into the Lord Jesus.  John 1:12 says, Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Tragically, not everyone will benefit from what Christ has done. The offer is universal, but the application is exclusive – salvation is only through Jesus Christ. It’s only applied to those who believe and receive Him.

4. Knowing Jesus, His Only Son, transforms us. 

Recently, I stumbled on this quote: A liberal church says you are welcome here and you do not have to clean up your life. A legalistic church says you are not welcome here until you clean up your life. Jesus says you are welcome here and I will change your life from the inside out.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. Those two words in Christ are two of the most important words in the Bible. They appear 172 times in the New Testament. You may wonder, which one is it, “Christ in me?” or “me in Christ?” Yes. It’s a glorious twin truth in God’s Word. As Major Ian Thomas wrote: To be in Christ that is redemption; but for Christ to be in you that is sanctification! To be in Christ that makes you fit for heaven; but for Christ to be in you that makes you fit for earth! To be in Christ that changes your destination; but for Christ to be in you that changes your destiny! The one makes heaven your home the other makes this world His workshop.

Becoming a Christian isn’t like a tadpole becoming a frog. It’s more like the frog who was kissed and became a prince. What changes immediately is the direction of our lives. We were headed toward hell and God turns us around toward heaven. Jesus comes into your life and gives you a new nature, but the old sinful nature is still there. It’s why you don’t change overnight. When it says “the old is gone” it means the control your sin nature had over you is gone. The sin nature still is present, but it no longer controls you.

Have you ever driven by a restaurant and seen a sign that says, “Under New Management”? You know that things have changed inside that restaurant. Maybe you ate there under the old management and the food was cold, the service was slow, and you said, “Never again.” But when you see the sign “Under New Management” you think, “I think I’ll give it another try, because it’s probably better than before.”

Every Christ-follower could wear a sign around our neck that says, Under New Management. What used to happen inside our lives has changed.

We have a new purpose for living; a new attitude toward others; a new identity in Christ; and a new nature that’s transforming us. We’ve had an extreme makeover from the inside out because of what Jesus has done!

Conclusion

Many of you know Tony Dungy, the former coach of the Indianapolis Colts, who is now a commentator. Several years ago, he tragically lost his own son, who was only in his 20’s, to suicide. In the aftermath of his son’s death, Dungy maintained an amazing Christian testimony that touched many people’s lives. As a result, he got all kinds of letters and e-mails, sharing how people had been blessed by his testimony.

Two of them wrote about how their family members were given sight by the corneas his son had donated. Others told how their own children were saved from suicide as a result. Some shared how they or their children had given their lives to Christ though Dungy’s testimony of what had happened. Just an amazing harvest of good things came from his son’s tragic death.

But speaking at a breakfast at the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit, Tony Dungy shared his heart. He began talking about all those good things that had happened as a result of the death of his son. Before a ballroom, filled with former NFL coaches, players and officials, Dungy said, If God had talked to me before James’ death and said his death would have helped all these people, it would have saved them and healed their sins, but I would have to take your son, I would have said no, I can’t do that.

But God had the same choice 2,000 years ago with His Son, Jesus Christ, and it paved the way for you and me to have eternal life. That’s the benefit I got, that’s the benefit James got, and that’s the benefit you can get if you accept Jesus into your heart today as your Savior.

My friend, God gave His Son for you, for me…for the world. It’s a free gift. But a gift must be accepted. Have you accepted God’s gift of salvation?

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.