On the Love of God -- Tim Phillips
You may not be familiar with the name Rollen Stewart, but if you watched any major sporting event in the 1970’s and 80’s, you are probably familiar with his handiwork. Rollen Stewart was the man who used to wear rainbow-colored wigs and carry large signs that read “John 3:16.” He could often be seen (or at least his sign was seen) on extra points as he sat in the end zone of football games. I did notice that when the Georgia Bulldogs' defensive back Kelee Ringo scored the decisive touchdown in last Mondays' College Football National Championship game, there was someone in the end zone holding up one of those John 3:16 signs. It was not Rollen Stewart, however -- he is currently in prison serving three life sentences for kidnapping.
John 3:16 is, of course, an appropriate verse to display on such a sign. It is a well-known verse (most have in memorized), and it contains a word that resonates with our culture ("love"). Because of that, it runs the risk of being a very misunderstood verse -- not only by the world, but also by Christians. When I was in seminary, there was a Methodist gentleman in one of my classes who assumed that John 3:16 was a magic bullet verse that defeated Calvinism. The way one interprets and defines "love" goes a long way to determining how one reads John 3:16.
So what do we mean by "love," especially when we are speaking of the love of God? The world often interprets "love" in misleading ways. When I was in the 11th grade, I had a crush on a the girl who sat in front of me in Algebra II. She would go on to become homecoming queen the next year, and the following year she married a player on the football team (and as far as I know, they are still married today). I thought at one time I was "in love" (the world used to call it "puppy love"), but that's not what John 3:16 is speaking about. Biblical love is not merely a thought or a feeling, but it expressed by an action. In John 3:16, that action is seen in "giving." God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only begotten Son as the Savior in whom we must believe. A similar statement ("love" implies "giving") can be seen in Ephesians 5:25: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her." Today is my oldest daughter's 12th birthday, and one of the ways our family will demonstrate our love for her is in giving gifts to her. John 3:16 tells us that God the Father has given us the greatest gift of all -- His own beloved Son Jesus Christ. And if we believe in Him, if we are trusting in Him as all our refuge and all our righteousness, then we will receive the gift of eternal life through Him.
This past Thursday I officiated the funeral service for a dear lady in our congregation. She died just a couple of weeks shy of her 99th birthday, so she had been blessed by God with a long life. One of the texts she wanted read at her funeral (I used it for my sermon text) was 1 John 4:7-21. In that text, we have another wonderful example of how the love of God is shown clearly to us:
By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)
Do you want to know the love of God? Come to Jesus Christ. Do you want proof of the love of God? Then look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Ben Franklin once reputedly (and probably apocryphally) said, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." But it is actually the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ where we definitely seen the love of God demonstrated for us. For all who believe in Him, He has taken away our sin, paid our debt, purchased our redemption, and endured the wrath of God in our place, so that we have eternal life in Him. That is far better than beer, better than birthday presents, better than football championships, better than anything this world has to offer. Therefore, let us believe in Jesus Christ and live for Jesus Christ, and let us love one another because He has first loved us.