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Apr 03, 2022

John - God So Loved

Passage: John 3:16-21

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: John: Come and See

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: love, sin, salvation, gift

THEME: Our familiarity with this verse can quickly deflate the radical power and impact of God’s outrageous love that propelled him to sacrificially bring his people out from darkness and back home to the light. This light, the person and work of Christ, exposes and purifies our hearts and actions, which draws some into his light while repelling others to stay in the darkness.

THEME: Our familiarity with this verse can quickly deflate the radical power and impact of God’s outrageous love that propelled him to sacrificially bring his people out from darkness and back home to the light. This light, the person and work of Christ, exposes and purifies our hearts and actions, which draws some into his light while repelling others to stay in the darkness.

MAIN PASSAGE: John 3:16-21
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. 17 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. 18 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. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

 

SERMON DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  • Read John 3:16-21 together: out-loud the first time, then silently another time, underlining main words or phrases that stick out to you.

  • Recap: This is part 2 of the Jesus/Nicodemus discussion. In part 1 Jesus proclaims that the way to The Kingdom wasn’t renovating this creation but fully re-creating it (being “born again”) - This section explains the WHY and the HOW.

  • Have you considered WHY God would rescue a broken creation? What different options are there?

  • Read through this passage for a fuller understanding of this whole concept:
    Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

  • How does the magnitude of God’s Sacrifice correlate with the magnitude of God’s love for us? (For God to do this means that “it was worth it”)

  • Our Response: Jesus says the way in is simply to “believe” – unpack that with one another. What does believe actually mean? Compare it to another way John writes about belief in 1 John 4:16 – “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” What is the connection of “know” and “believe”?

  • What other responses does this kind of love produce?

  • In all of this, think about these things:
    • Is there a character of God that has been clarified?
    • Is there a personal application that comes to mind?
    • Is there a sin that has been highlighted that you need to repent of?