The Love and Wrath of God
Download MP3Invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 3. John chapter 3, or you can read this text in your worship guide. And we're going to begin reading in verse 16. John 3, begin reading in verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Joel Brooks:For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already. Because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.
Joel Brooks:For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God. Then fast forward to verse 36. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Our father, we ask that through your spirit, you would open up our minds and our hearts, and that we would come in this place to see you as glorious and beautiful in all of your attributes. Lord, I pray in this moment that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, May they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. Tonight, we are going to be looking at the most familiar verse in all of the Bible, John 3 16. A verse made famous by Tim Tebow, and also by Jesus. It's hard to go to a sporting event and not see somebody holding up a sign that doesn't say, John 3:16. I remember as a kid, I used to go to Atlanta Braves games back when they were Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.
Joel Brooks:And they had the rainbow afro hair guy. And he would always be out there holding up a John 3 16 sign dancing. And And that was the way he did evangelism. And just for fun, I used to always add his name to the list of heroes in Hebrews 11. And this would entertain me as a kid.
Joel Brooks:I would read things like, Gideon and Samson and David, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire. And by faith some guy put on a rainbow wig and danced at a Braves game, holding up a John 3 16 sign. And it would amuse me to no end. This past week my mom took our family to Disney World. And just side of Disney there was actually a woman holding up a sign saying, John 3:16.
Joel Brooks:And so all week I kept thinking, people are perishing. People are perishing and, and we're just trying to entertain ourselves and distract ourselves. This this verse has reached really an iconic status. I bet that there are some of you here who did not grow up in the church, maybe you do not consider yourself a Christian, yet you have probably got this verse memorized by accident. Maybe you're driving underneath the tunnel and you just kinda look and you can see it graffitied on the wall and you've seen it enough times that you know, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever or whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Joel Brooks:So you've heard it, maybe even memorized it. But what does this verse mean? And then what about all those verses that come after John 3 16? I bet for some of you, verses 18 through 21 and and certainly verse 36 kinda came as a pronounce How can be How can God be a God of love and yet pronounce judgment on people? Let's take a closer look at this familiar passage and see what it says.
Joel Brooks:It begins with, for God so loved the world. Just stop right there. The God of the bible is a loving God. And it's tempting just to breeze right past this first statement, because we all just assume this. Of course God is loving.
Joel Brooks:We all know God is loving. But you'd actually be wrong to assume that. Because if you take even a a cursory look at the many different countries and cultures of the earth throughout history, you will realize just how novel of an idea a God of love is. For instance, you're not gonna find this idea of a loving God in ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman mythologies. Nor are you gonna find this concept of a loving God in Buddhism, Hinduism, or Islam.
Joel Brooks:This comes from the bible. God loves us. And if you take nothing else from tonight, please hear this, God loves you. He absolutely loves you. But I realize that this statement needs a little unpacking because as 21st century Americans, we are somewhat handicapped in our understanding of what love is.
Joel Brooks:Because unfortunately, our understanding of love is more shaped by pop songs or by movies, Hollywood. And so when we think of love, usually we first think of it primarily in emotional terms. Love is is that tingly feeling you get when you look at somebody and the music begins playing. It's the little hairs sticking up on your neck, but in a good way. It's the happiness that you feel.
Joel Brooks:And so we think of it as something emotional, not something that you will. You don't will love towards somebody. You know that you're in love when a person makes you happy. But unfortunately, just as sometimes you're happy and sometimes you're not, sometimes you could be in love and sometimes you can fall out of it. And so we think, you know, that the reason that so many people get divorced, at least the reason that they give is, well, I just no longer love my spouse anymore.
Joel Brooks:And it's not something, you know, that they didn't try to, you know, to prevent, but they just fell out of love. Meaning they no longer had these these feelings. And so, what else could they do? What choice did they have but to divorce, because if love is a feeling, it comes and goes. Now hear me, the biblical understanding of love definitely has feelings, but there's much more to it than this.
Joel Brooks:There's a will to it. Love, love pursues another person, even when that feeling is absent. There's there's an iron resolve to this love. It's steadfast, it is immovable. The biblical view of love is selfless.
Joel Brooks:It is unconditional. You don't fall in and out of it. No matter what, it is always moving towards the other person. I feel I need to say this right here at the start, because I know there are some of you who are gonna hear me say, God loves you. And you're gonna think, you know, I've I've heard that somebody loved me before and they left me.
Joel Brooks:Or my parents said that they loved each other and they got divorced. And so you're thinking, love is fickle, love doesn't last. But that is not the biblical view of love. So once again, if you hear nothing else tonight, hear this, God loves you in a never ending, faithful, passionate way. And he will pursue you.
Joel Brooks:We see this here in John 3 16. We see, for God so loved the world, He gave. He was initiating movement towards us. The love of God was demonstrated to us through him giving something to us. And what God gives to us is his son.
Joel Brooks:And when you read this, don't think Christmas. Often in Christmas, we use that language, that Jesus, he was the gift, the incarnation was the gift of God to us. But here, John is talking about the death of Jesus. John 316 begins with the word for. For God so loved the world, meaning this is attached to what we were just talking about before.
Joel Brooks:And right before this, Jesus was talking about his crucifixion, saying how the son of man must be lifted up. And so, this gift here is the death of Jesus. Jesus is saying, God loves you so much that he is giving me to you to die a violent brutal death, in order that you don't have to perish. Perhaps this is a good place to talk about the other side of John 3 16, which we we do see God as a God of love, but we also see that God is a God of judgment and wrath. Look with me at verse 17.
Joel Brooks:I'm gonna read that again. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, But in order that the world might be saved through him. Now this is actually just a restatement of John 3 16, where we see God sending his son into the world to save the world. But here in verse 17, instead of using the word perish, John uses the word condemned, or maybe your bibles say judged. Same thing.
Joel Brooks:Perish is the same thing as condemned or being judged by God. Perish doesn't mean you just die. Perishing happens by the active condemnation of God. Verse 36 restates this once again. Whoever believes in the son has eternal life.
Joel Brooks:Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. So in this verse, once again, you see, if you believe in Jesus, you have life. But this time in studying of finding the words perish or condemned afterwards, you find the words, the wrath of God remains on this person. So to perish is to be condemned by God. To be condemned by God is to have the wrath of God on a person.
Joel Brooks:In other words, what we've seen up to this point is God does indeed love people with this never ending passionate love. But God also judges people. He condemns people. He pours out his wrath on them. God is a God of love, but he is also a God of wrath.
Joel Brooks:Let me just ask, how does that sit with you? Be honest. How does that sit with you? I know that there are probably a lot of people here struggling with the idea of God being a God of love, and yet God sending people to hell. I mean, after all, how can God be a God of love and yet do this?
Joel Brooks:Now, I confess this is something that I have struggled with as well. And it's not because scripture isn't clear on this. Scripture is so clear on this. Jesus talked more about hell than he did about heaven. But I bet for some of you, even as you were were reading this, reading through John and the verses that came after it, I bet some of you were surprised.
Joel Brooks:You're like, I don't remember this. I don't remember coming across these words about condemnation or judgment or wrath. And it's because many of us have done what most of the world has done and we just ignore it. That's our way of coping. We just ignore these words.
Joel Brooks:We suppress it. A couple of years ago, our middle child, Natalie, she was either 7 or 8 at the time, and, she found out about hell. She'd heard about hell some, but she actually got teaching about hell and she got it here at church in one of our children's classes at the time. It was mentioned and discussed a little bit. And immediately her stomach started hurting.
Joel Brooks:She did not like that. Her stomach hurting, it didn't go away. When she came home, she actually threw up. She was so sick over the idea of God sending people to hell. And let me tell you, as a as a dad and as a pastor, do you know how tempting it was at that moment for me just to put my arm around Natalie and just say, you know what, God isn't like that.
Joel Brooks:He's not like that. Just dismiss that idea from your mind. Of course, God wouldn't do something like that. But it would have been so wrong for me to do so. Because what Natalie was feeling there was actually appropriate, and it was good.
Joel Brooks:You know, one feels nauseated when they've been living close to the ground their whole life, but in a moment is all of a sudden elevated to great heights. And when you're elevated, you're suddenly lifted up. You get disoriented. You get dizzy. And my little girl was feeling disoriented and dizzy as she was risen to this new height to see God's beauty and his holiness.
Joel Brooks:The cross, her sinfulness, all in new ways. Suddenly, the the the expanse of those terms became a whole lot greater, and it was disoriented. It made her feel dizzy. She threw up. But the cross had never made sense to her before until that moment.
Joel Brooks:And it will never make sense to you apart from an understanding of God's wrath. Without the judgment of God, the cross is trivialized. I mean, why would God send his son to die on the cross if he didn't have to? Why? Why why was such a horrific event necessary?
Joel Brooks:It was necessary because you would perish. His wrath would rightly and justly fall on you, if he didn't provide a substitute. The cross makes no sense apart from the wrath of God and the doctrine of hell. There is no Christianity apart from a God who judges sinners. And we just confessed that when we read the apostle's creed together, that God will come to judge the living and the dead.
Joel Brooks:Now once again, we are handicapped with our modern 21st century notion of love. Because we cannot reconcile a loving God with an angry God. And the reason we we can't do this is because we equate love with acceptance, with tolerance. And so when we hear, maybe when you heard me say tonight that God loves you, you immediately think, okay, well God accepts me, and God is happy with me just the way I am. He's got no desire to change me.
Joel Brooks:And if this is your view of God, then then you really see him as just He's just a big cheerleader there for you. He's just there for you. You know, he's your invisible best friend. He's walking through life and he's just kinda giving you a big thumbs up to everything you do. It's like, that's great.
Joel Brooks:And he's just always applauding you. He's going, keep doing it. But he doesn't have any plans for you. He doesn't desire to make you a better person. He doesn't desire to make you a person of depth and of character.
Joel Brooks:He's just just there accepting you for who you are and who you are becoming. Now, let me ask you, is that love parents, is that how you love your children? You just kind of cheer them on, as they're doing something that can harm themselves or harm others. You know, Natalie, way to run with those scissors. Keep doing that.
Joel Brooks:You know, George, I love it when you beat up on your siblings. Do do you do that? Just just I'm just accepting you. Or is there a time as a parent when you say, stop it. What you're doing is wrong.
Joel Brooks:Go to your room. There's consequences. And as a child, you don't get to decide what is right or wrong because you're just a child. As a parent, you decide that for your children. Stop it.
Joel Brooks:You have no idea, but this is harmful to yourself. It's harmful to others. If you keep doing this, you'll have no depth. You'll have no character. I know the plan I have for you.
Joel Brooks:And if you keep doing this, it will never work. Stop it. Go to your room. Anger and love are not opposites. Actually, they go together.
Joel Brooks:In my job, I get to do a lot of marital counseling. Whenever I have a couple come over to my office, or maybe they come over to our house, and they're sitting on the couch, I know that if they're really angry at one another, it's gonna be okay. Like, if there's shouting and yelling, I walk away from that feeling really good. And I don't know if they feel really good, but I feel because, I'm encouraged that they at least still are in a relationship with one another. They're still thinking about the other, talking towards the other person.
Joel Brooks:They're still close enough to actually be hurt by the other person. That's a good thing. Now, I get very discouraged if I see the husband's eyes just kinda glaze over, and he checks out. And maybe he just occasionally says, whatever. Or I get really discouraged when perhaps the wife says something like, that's that's fine, that's fine.
Joel Brooks:Let him do whatever he wants. He can leave the house, that's great, that's fine. Anger's not the opposite of love. Indifference is the opposite of love. And hear me.
Joel Brooks:God is not indifferent towards you. He gets angry when you sin. And if your view of God and the love of God is one of just acceptance. You need to realize that that view of his love will never change you. It will never move you.
Joel Brooks:If he just kinda loves you in general, he's just always there. But if your view of God is, and his love is that he doesn't look the other way when you sin, Instead, he's greatly offended. He is hurt because of your sin. Yet he's not going anywhere. Instead, he will send his own son to bear the punishment that you deserve in order that he might still be with you.
Joel Brooks:His love is at a great sacrifice to himself. That is a love that will trans form you. That is a love that will melt your heart and change you. And this is the message that we are called to believe. Says, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes.
Joel Brooks:It's not whosoever becomes a much greater, better, moral person, whoever turns his life around, it's it's not that it's it's just who whoever believes, it's a call to simply believe. This isn't an an intellectual or just an intellectual belief because even the demons believe. Even the demons, when they're around Jesus said, you are the son of God. They believed, but they didn't treasure and they didn't trust. And that is what John is saying here.
Joel Brooks:We have to trust Jesus. Listen, we all trust in something, whether it's money or it's in marriage or in it's our job or it's in our home, we all trust in something. And what John is saying here, is if you trust in something that will perish, you will also perish with it. But if you trust in something eternal, if you trust in God, then you will live forever. If you trust in what will perish, you will perish.
Joel Brooks:If you trust in him who is eternal, you will have eternal life. Now, the rest of John 3, it tells us what this believing looks like. Let's pick up in verse 19. And this is the judgment, the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
Joel Brooks:But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that maybe clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God. So, believing in Jesus looks like this. It means coming to the light and allowing yourself to be exposed. Coming to the light and allowing yourself to be exposed. Coming to the light means that you humble yourself before God, and you acknowledge who you are, that you are a sinner.
Joel Brooks:Tim Keller, he describes it this way, he says, we all look better in candlelight than we do under the fluorescence. But God's calling us to come under the fluorescent. I had a husband one time. He asked me how he could rekindle his romance with his wife. And I said, 2 things.
Joel Brooks:Pine saw, candlelight. I said, you you need to, you know, get home before your wife and and open up some pine saw cleaner. You don't even have to clean. Just just pour it out. Different places.
Joel Brooks:There is the smell, there's no greater aphrodisiac than Pine Sol. Some of you men, it's the first time you've taken notes. I'm looking, it's like first time. This is gold. And then, a candlelight dinner.
Joel Brooks:You know, you you get some soft lighting in there, and and you fix a meal. And and that's great. The one thing that will run it, is if your wife comes home and turns on the overhead lights. Immediately, you're exposed. She's like, you didn't clean up.
Joel Brooks:This meal doesn't look that great. You're exposed. Believing in Jesus and coming to the light means that that you're exposed by His light. It's like going to the doctor's office and being put on the table and the lights go on. Does anybody look good under those lights?
Joel Brooks:No. It exposes every flaw. Believing in the cross means coming to the light. Because when we believe in the cross, we realize that was necessary because of my wretchedness. So anytime you look at the cross, you're being exposed.
Joel Brooks:Now, now, if you want to just pretend that everything is okay, and that every that you're really a good beautiful person, don't look at the cross, because if you look at the cross, it reminds you of what was necessary. You have to humble yourself to come and look at the cross. But here's the deal. If you come to the light, the light not only exposes you, the light begins to change you. It begins to show not only your sins, but the beginnings of good works.
Joel Brooks:So and just like sunlight, think of it as sunlight, just as sunlight causes fruit to grow, the light of Jesus causes fruit or good works to begin to grow in our life. And as you see these things happening and as the world sees these things happening, you're not gonna become proud because John reminds you, you realize it all came from God. Look at the end of verse 21. Says, but whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that maybe clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God. God was the one behind it all.
Joel Brooks:He is the author of your salvation from beginning to end. Now, I I would be remiss if I didn't mention a couple of things, 2 things before I close. One is this, if you have never trusted in Jesus, Do so now. Don't wait till tomorrow. Do so now.
Joel Brooks:Hear these words again. For God so loved the world, for God so loved you that he gave his only son, that if you believe in him you will not perish, but you will have eternal life. 2nd, if you're a Christian and you are not sharing this message, do so. This message brings life to people, and it is also worth your life. It is a message worth dying for.
Joel Brooks:Some of you have been been quote, building bridges with unbelievers now for years, but you have never once shared your faith with these people. And listen, you've been commissioned by God to do this. And yet, you keep keep saying, I'm building bridges, I'm building bridges. I'm just waiting for an open door. Well first, you never know if a door is open until you actually grab it, try to turn it and pull.
Joel Brooks:That's the only way, alright? Not just if it's standing, like wait for the door to open. Open, come on. Try. And second, you live in America.
Joel Brooks:You can proclaim your faith freely with no repercussions. And then no cops are going to come and arrest you. You are allowed to do this. You have liberties that other countries and other cultures and other times would kill them. Would kill to have.
Joel Brooks:The gospel is not just worth being embarrassed for, or ridiculed for, or possibly losing your job for. It's worth dying for. Proclaim your faith. This message, the message that brought you life, you were to share to others to bring them life. If you have supposedly been building bridges with with people for a long time and you have yet to share your faith, I just want to ask a question.
Joel Brooks:What are you afraid of? What are you afraid of? And I want you to just take a step back and look at the trajectory of that relationship, and ask yourself if things keep staying staying the same that they are, will this person go to hell? Will this person ever hear the gospel? Ask the Spirit for boldness.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Father, for those who don't know you, who don't know your son, the tremendous gift of your son on the cross, I pray that through your spirit you would press that in on this moment. That right now they would hear you calling them and say, look to the cross. See how much I love you. And for those of us who believe in you, Jesus, and who have been exposed by your light, may we take that light to others.
Joel Brooks:God, forgive us of our cowardice. Through your Spirit give us a boldness to fulfill your calling on us, to proclaim your truth. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
