What Easter Is Really All About

Introduction

John 3:16

This Bible text is inexhaustible! All the highways of divine truths meet in this metropolis. It is the hub of all revealed truth. With that being said, "You can't teach a person what they already know. It's like attempting to push a string." (Marty Benton)

The context of John 3:16 is that of a conversation of Jesus with a religious leader by the name of Nicodemus, an expert (scholar) in the Scriptures. William Barclay said, "All great men have had their favorite texts; but this has been called 'Everybody's text.' Herein for every simple heart is the very essence of the gospel." Augustine said, "God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love."

Note Jesus' Old Testament illustration to Nicodemus.

John 3:14, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up"

This is a quote from Numbers 21:5-9; an event that took place during the 40 years of wilderness wandering. As a judgment upon the people's disobedience, the Lord sent venomous snakes to infest their camp. Moses interceded on their behalf. Moses' prayer was answered with a display of divine grace as God showed mercy to His rebellious people. He instructed Moses to make a bronze replica of a snake and raise it above the camp on a pole. Those who were bitten would be healed if they but looked at it, thereby acknowledging their guilt and expressing faith in God's forgiveness and healing power.

What a picture of man's forgiveness/salvation as a result of God's sacrificial gift.

The stricken Israelites were cured by obediently looking apart from any works of righteousness on their own in hope and dependence of God's Word at the elevated bronze serpent. Jesus was saying to Nicodemus, in the same way, whoever looks in faith alone to the crucified Christ will be cured from sin's deadly bite and will in Him have eternal life.

This is a picture of Amazing Grace.

I. The Greatest Giver

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..."

The entire text revolves around ten words - God, loved, world, gave, Son, whosoever, believes, perish, have, life.

The creative work of God is summed up in ten words in Gen. 1:1.

The legislative work of God is summed up in Ten Commandments found in Ex. 20.

The redemptive work of God is summed up in ten words in John 3:16. These ten words can be arranged in 5 pairs.

A. God and Son

The giver and the gift; the author and the finisher of salvation.

B. Loved and Gave

A two-fold revelation of the benevolence of God; "love" the prerequisite of such a gift; the gift, the proof of such a love (you can give without loving but you cannot love without giving)

C. World and Whosoever

All people universally can be saved; it was not for a nation or group that He was given; He was given so that all, without distinction or exception, could be saved.

D. Believe and Have

The hand of faith stretched out in confidence to the giver and the hand of faith drawn back in contentment with the gift; the trust and the transfer.

E. Perish and Life

Two eternal destinies; hell and heaven.

This verse is shallow enough for a little child to wade in and never be afraid of drowning; yet, it is deep enough for the greatest scholar to swim in and never touch the bottom.

It is like the unknown hymn writer put it when he wrote: "Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade To write the love of God alone Would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the

Whole though stretched from sky to sky."

"For God so loved" - it is a love called out of a person's heart by an awakened sense of value in an object which causes one to prize it. (Wuest Word Studies). Speaks of the mercy of our Heavenly Father, that He should be concerned about sinful humanity. His very nature is love.

In 1 John 4:16 we read, "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him."

There is no end to which His love cannot go for He "so loved the world." The love of God is limitless; it embraces all mankind. There was nothing in man that attracted God's love. Rather, He loved because he sovereignly determined to do so.

"that He gave His only begotten Son" - love is never passive. Paul would later refer to Jesus as God's indescribable gift in 2 Cor. 9:15. He was unique; one of a kind.

II. The Greatest Guarantee

"…that whosoever believes in Him should not perish" - God calls on us to trust His Son. The damning sin, the ultimate sin God will not forgive, is the sin of refusing to trust His Son.

The free offer of the gospel is broad enough to encompass the vilest sinner yet narrow enough to exclude all who reject Christ.

Think of the Israelites who were bitten by the snakes. Each sufferer had to look for himself. One could have been lying within one yard but had their backs been turned toward the pole, they would have died. It is not sufficient to know of this salvation offered; it was not enough even to believe this salvation was a reality. Each person had to look for themselves; otherwise, God's provision was useless.

Use your imagination. What happened when one looked and found it to be true? They probably went throughout the camp encouraging others to look.

On January 6, 1850, a snowstorm almost crippled the city of Colchester, England; and a teenage boy was unable to get to the church he usually attended. So he made his way to a nearby Primitive Methodist chapel, where an ill-prepared layman was substituting for the absent preacher. His text was Isaiah 45:22, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." For many months this young teenager had become miserable and under deep conviction; but though he had been reared in church (both his father and grandfather were preachers), he did not have the assurance of   salvation. The substitute minister did not have much to say, so he kept repeating the text. "A man need not go to college to learn to look," he shouted. "Anyone can look, a child can look!" About that time, he saw the visitor sitting to one side, and he pointed at him and said, "Young man, you look  very miserable. Young man, look to Jesus Christ!" The young man did look by faith, and that was how the great preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, was converted.

"perish" - apollumi (aorist subjunctive middle); the subject as acting in some way upon himself or concerning himself. This speaks in revelation of the other side of God's character. God is love and God is holy. In holiness He makes a promise (shall perish), in love He makes provision (gave His Son).

III. The Greatest Gift

"but have eternal life" - John Phillips said, "We are engineered out of the stuff of eternity. Eternal Life. The life of God Himself. This great sentence, which summarizes the whole gospel story, begins with God and ends with everlasting life. It begins with One who had no beginning. It ends with that which has no ending."

Conclusion

This is indeed one of the great treasures of our Bible.

A Great Love - For God so loved the world

A Great Gift - that He gave His only begotten Son

A Great Opportunity - that whosoever believes in Him A Great Deliverance - should not perish

A Great Possession - but have everlasting life