For God So Loved The World
“For God So Loved the World”
Reflection for Lent IV March 10, 2024
Churchill and Gilford United Churches
Krista Moore
Numbers 21:4–9
God heals the Israelites.
John 3:14–21
For God so loved the world.
Scripture Summary: The Israelites complain to Moses in the wilderness. God sends venomous snakes who bite and kill some. They ask Moses to pray for forgiveness and God tells Moses to bring a remedy: erect a bronze serpent on a pole and all who look at it will be healed. Similarly, Jesus explains to Nicodemus that God sent Jesus to heal the people; and that he too will be raised up; he says, “God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).
Introduction to the Scriptures:
The Israelites were angry at God and Moses.
They were tired and hungry in the wilderness.
Moses! Give us something to eat. Give us something to drink! They complained wildly.
God heard their complaints and sent venomous snakes!
They were sorry.
Moses! Pray for us! God is angry with us! Many are dying!
And so Moses prayed, and God gave them a remedy.
Many were healed.
But would they listen and follow God’s plan to the end?
Nicodemus came to Jesus by cover of night.
He was a wealthy and powerful man. A Pharisee, and one of the Sanhedrin of the Temple. But he heard of this Jesus doing wonderful miracles and he wanted to know the truth about him.
Jesus told him many secrets of the faith.
But would he follow Jesus?
Later, Nicodemus defended Jesus in Jerusalem.
After the crucifixion, Nicodemus brought rich spices to anoint Jesus’s body for burial.
But was it enough?
As he looked down at Jesus’s body, he may have wondered:
Will I have eternal life? Will I join you in Paradise?
REFLECTION
SCRIPTURE
Today’s message is very straightforward.
Jesus lays it out famously in John 3:16.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, a Jewish man, a Pharisee, and Sanhedrin – a religious leader with a lot to lose.
Nicodemus wants to follow him, but he hesitates.
He comes at night because he is afraid of claiming Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God – it would be the end of his career, maybe even death. The Pharisees and Sadducees, and religious elite did not believe in Jesus.
But Jesus says:
Come to the Light!
Do not hide yourself in darkness…
Do not hide your fears or mistakes… or worry
about what the world thinks.
Come to me and experience eternal life!
This is an amazing moment.
Not just for Nicodemus but for US. ALL of us.
Jesus tells us who God is, and why he came.
FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD…
God wants to heal us.
He sent JESUS to BE WITH US.
To suffer and die with us,
without saving himself.
Without using his power to prevent it.
GOD/JESUS LOVED US SO MUCH he let himself be led like a lamb to slaughter,
To be killed by the Romans and religious leaders
of his day, and he forgave them……
SO THAT God would forgive us
Because GOD LOVES US and wants us to live forever with him and have ETERNAL LIFE.
WHY WOULD GOD DO THAT?
WHY WOULD GOD SACRIFICE JESUS FOR US?
Because God LOVES us and wants to SAVE everyone. EVEN when we turn away, God sends us healing, God tries to send us a lifeline back to him.
In the Old Testament, God gave Moses’ the bronze serpent lifted UP on a pole to heal the people of their snake bits. (That symbol is called the CADUCEUS also known as the rod of ASCLEPIUS (Greek) and became our medical symbol today).
In the New Testament, GOD SENDS JESUS lifted UP on a cross to become the new path of salvation for us. So that when we look up to him, we remember God’s grace and choose to be with him in eternal life.
John 3:16 says,
“Anyone who believes in him will not perish but have
ETERNAL LIFE.”
BUT THERE’S A PROBLEM. NOT EVERYONE
BELIEVES OR WANTS TO. Some choose to turn away. To reject him. Or worse, kill him.
We too, may sometimes refuse or deny God when we:
▪ choose wealth, status or power over God or people
• choose to live in darkness – (ignorance, fear,
anger, selfishness, deceit)
• ignore the needs of others and live only for
ourselves
• reject, harm, kill or oppress the innocent, the poor,
the widow, the orphan, the outcast
• do not feel sorry or repent and turn back to God
EVEN THEN, GOD SENT JESUS TO SAVE US.
WE can change our mind and turn away from darkness, from the ways of the world.
We can choose to begin again.
STORY:
STORY: ORDINARY ANGELS – WOMAN WHO FINDS GRACE But what about the ones who don’t really know Jesus, don’t study the Bible, or don’t go to church etc. Or who have lost their faith? What about them?
Let me tell you a story.
There was this woman who was at the bottom of her barrel. She was a middle-aged hairdresser in the U.S. She wasn’t educated or religious. She didn’t go to church – well, not often.
She was divorced.
She had a son who wouldn’t speak to her
because of her heavy drinking.
One day, she was in line at a grocery store, and she saw a newspaper ad about a little girl who was fighting for her life – she had just lost her mom to cancer, and now the little girl was dying of the same disease, waiting for a liver transplant.
The hairdresser, I’ll call her Sarah, walked into a church where the family was having the funeral for the mother.
She didn’t know what she was doing. But she wanted to help. She couldn’t give her her liver
But she raised money,
she raised awareness,
she got the media on it.
She even got a private jet to get this little girl to
the hospital in time when the liver became available.
This woman was not religious. She didn’t talk about Jesus. But she acted like a disciple, doing whatever was necessary to help this little girl.
But she was still broken.
She still drank. She almost lost connection with this new family. Her son still wouldn’t talk to her.
Until her friend took her to AA, where she believed in a HIGHER POWER (AA), and asked forgiveness.
Before, she felt worthless because her parents made her feel that way. It wasn’t her fault.
I won’t tell you what happens, but in the end, SPOILER ALERT the father of the girl tells her she’s not worthless and calls her a “miracle.”
May I argue, this is SALVATION.
That is how God gives us ETERNAL LIFE.
When the old life passes away, and the new life begins. She got a sign in a grocery store – God’s invitation
She put others before herself.
She embraced God as a higher power in AA.
She got more than her life back, she got a new life with an extended family who loved her and reconciled with her son. If you want to know more about this story, it is based on a true story, and the FILM is called ORDINARY ANGELS – you can see it in theatres right now.
MY POINT IS
God is merciful.
God sent us Jesus to give us an opportunity to see God’s love in action.
And to choose God with all our hearts, minds, and souls. God gave us free will to choose.
It says, those who choose not to believe in God or the Son of God, are condemned already because they chose not to believe in God’s only Son.
In other words…
Because they choose to reject God.
It’s a CHOICE.
HOW THIS APPLIES TO US
As I say often, no one is perfect.
We all make mistakes. Like the woman who was an alcoholic and lost touch with her son.
The disciples were not perfect.
Nicodemus was not perfect. He came to Jesus in the darkness of night, afraid of being found out by his religious leaders. Of losing his status and power. He feared what would happen if he claimed Jesus was the Messiah.
We too sometimes choose to hide our faith, or to deny God.
THE GOOD NEWS IS….
Even though we can be selfish at times, or fearful at times, God offers us GRACE.
God’s plan is so AMAZING, so POWERFUL, that if we just BELIEVE, and trust in God, all will be well.
Not just our physical lives here, but our eternal life from now on.
QUESTION: What is ETERNAL LIFE? Or Heaven?
So what is ETERNAL LIFE?
In researching this, I learned that eternal life is not an automatic thing that happens after you die. It comes to us while we are alive. ETERNAL LIFE comes to us when we are alive in Christ, when we accept God’s grace and follow the path Jesus offers us. Even when it’s hard.
Jesus gives us strength to endure anything
to accomplish more,
endure more,
and LOVE more than we ever thought possible.
So, while we’re suffering and going through life, how do we know if we have eternal life?
Later in John’s gospel, Jesus describes it to the woman at the well: he says, when you thirst, he provides the LIVING WATER of the Spirit that becomes a spring welling UP TO ETERNAL LIFE.
In other words, Jesus gives us the Spirit to do the impossible, to feel God’s love, feel the animation of the Spirit in us to do the will of God, to honour God, to be joyful despite our challenges. This IS the sign of eternal life.
It is God’s gift to us.
It is a spiritual gift.
Jesus says:
Follow me, and live in me, and ask me, and I will give you living water, I will lead you to eternal life.
Jesus invites us to enter the kingdom of heaven while we are on earth, to choose to follow God and accept God’s grace.
HOW DO WE ACCEPT GOD’S GRACE.
So how do we accept and believe that Jesus was sent for us, how do we experience eternal life?
Krista’s Three Things.
1. Follow the law of Moses (The 10 Commandments), and the greatest commandments given by Jesus: “LOVE God with all your heart, your soul and your strength; and LOVE your neighbour as yourself.”
2. Accept God’s grace in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he sent is only Son that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”Contemplate that.
3. Listen for God calling you, follow, do what you can to help others, and ask forgiveness when you make mistakes.
CLOSING TEACHING – NICODEMUS
ETERNAL LIFE begins when we turn away from our old way and feel the stirrings of God pulling us in a new direction.
Like NICODEMUS talking to Jesus in the cover of night. He wanted to know more, but he was afraid.
Would he be willing to come out into the light?
Some scholars believe Nicodemus was a disciple of Jesus. He anointed Jesus’ body with expensive spices. And helped Joseph of Arimathea bury Jesus in a tomb.
He had great love and respect for Jesus.
No one knows what happened to Nicodemus.
But I suspect, that when he died, he saw Jesus’s hand reach out to him, and heard his voice welcoming him to heaven saying, “Well done, my faithful servant.”
Isn’t that what we all want?
A loving relationship with God.
A loving relationship with ourselves and others.
It’s all about LOVE
.
Let us meditate on Jesus’s promises.
Jesus says to us:
Come experience God’s LOVE
Come into God’s LIGHT
Come, experience ETERNAL LIFE.
The invitation is open for all.
Let us accept this gift of grace,
Knowing God so loved the world he sent Jesus to help us. We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.