Theme- 7 Wonders of Salvation
Verse- John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.(NIV)
2) THE WONDER OF GOD’S LOVE IS- THE WORLD
How could God’s love extend not only to those who are good, and to those who are seeking God, but also to the world meaning every race, every tribe, every nationality, and every tongue? God’s love is so wide there is not anyone living whom God does not love.
Remember who Jesus is talking to. Nicodemus who believed he was righteous because he was a Jew, a nobleman, politician, and morally, ethically acceptable. God loves the world. You mean the non-Jews, the non moral, and the non ethical too? Yes. Pagans and saints. Those who love God and those who do not love God, those who do good and those who do evil. God loves the unlovable and the unlovely, the lonely who no one else loves.
It was Augustine who said, “God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love.” John Calvin said, “The Heavenly Father loves the human race and wishes that they should not perish.”
I was intrigued by one of the missionary prayer letters we received from our Baptist General Conference missionary Larry Caldwell preparing for the Philippine outreach. He was writing on his home computer word processor, signing his letter, “Yours, for reaching the unreached in each generation.” He writes that it’s what motivates him; that there are 3 billion unreached people throughout the world. However his new addition to the computer program was a dictionary that checked on words to see if they are misspelled, over 222,000 words but the screen flashes “unreached” is not found. Since the word “unreached” did not exist, the computer gave some options. He could choose to ignore unreached, check the next word, add it to his personal dictionary, or bypass unreached this time only. The unreached are not part of computer language but is part of God’s language.
God did not bypass the world but loves the world and calls us to let them know the good news.
3) THE WONDER OF GOD’S ACTION IS- HE GAVE
You can give without loving, but you can’t love without giving. The gift of love is something costly. This week Judi and I celebrated Valentine’s Day. I decided to give her a gift. My giving her a gift didn’t mean that I loved her any more or any less, but it does communicate love. What do I think makes her happy, not that I would buy it, but that is love, isn’t it? What makes the other person happy. That is an expression of love and capable giving.
Romans 5:8 says, “But God shows His love for us in that while we are yet sinners Christ dies for us.” The wonder of God’s action is that He gave. He gave His Son. We do not understand that gospel outside of the extent of his love that brought Jesus to the cross.
In the book, Born Again, Chuck Colsen tells of the time when he was in prison for some of his activities while he was in the White House and there was a crisis involving his son. Al Quie, who at that time was a congressman from Minnesota, found a statute that someone else could go to jail in his place. He offered to take Colson’s place in the jail so Colson could be with his family. That spoke to him of love like nothing else had, giving of himself to that degree. That is a wonder of salvation. Mt. 20:28 “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Pastor Dale
