THE WORLD'S

GREATEST TEXT!


The World, the Word & You! Broadcast
Commentary by Dennis L. Finnan

During World War I, many valiant soldiers died on the battle fields of Europe. Stories have arisen that have brought interest and hope to those who have found such memorabilia. Some time ago a story arose from the battlefield in France during the 1914-18 War. A crumbled piece of paper was found in the pocket of a soldier lying dead there. It read as follows:

Amazingly, this dead soldier had grasped the greatest truth about the greatest God who gave us the greatest text in the Bible. Someone has well said, John 3:16 is a little Bible, for in it is contained the greatest words man can ever hear. So, I think it is fitting that during this Season of Christ we pause to examine such a text, and find God's wonderful Good News and peace in this greatest invitation of all - from the greatest One in all creation.

The Gospel of John is one of the Bible's most precious parts, for in it John the apostle introduces his readers to the most wonderful Person in the universe - our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, I believe John's Gospel is a book everyone should read before any other book in the Bible. For in this gospel account we discover what is encapsulated in this one verse of Scripture found in John 3:16. The Bible says,

John 3:16 (NIV) ""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."

Now the context in which this verse is found is important. In John chapter three, God the Spirit has chosen to reveal to all men the importance of man's need to be "reborn" in the image of God. The story of this needed truth unfolds through an encounter with the God/Man Jesus Christ and one of the time periods most holy men. A man named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, a Pharisee by faith who came across the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, we are told was captured by Christ's Person and work. The Bible says by night Nicodemus was one who visited Jesus to ask him some important questions. From the text it appears Nicodemus was spiritually seeking and intellectually honest in his quest to find out, if Jesus Christ was indeed the promised Messiah, that is the Savior of the world. The Bible reveals God had foretold by the prophets that He would send them such a messiah, and one day, he would literally come and deliver God's people. We read,

John 3:1-3 (NIV) "Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." 3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.""

Jesus' reply to Nicodemus statement is perhaps the most stunning thing He could have said to him. Here was a powerful man in the Jerusalem society. But also here was a man that Jesus said was in desperate need of being "born again." This phrase in Christian terminology is important though often misunderstood. It literally means to "be born from above." It is a specific reference to all mankind's need to experience a real and literal new life principle operating in us, that can only come from Heaven and its Creator God, which the Bible reveals is Jesus Christ.

Now, to be born again was a difficult concept to grasp, even for this learned spiritually trained minister of Israel. Nicodemus struggled with this for all he could think of was a literal, physical birth and had no idea there was another birth everyone had to experience to come into a life with God Himself. So the Lord Jesus, proceeds to tell him what is necessary. The words of explanation are all summed up in this well known verse found in John 3:16. Apparently, that soldier who died on the battlefield in France during the 1914-1918 War, had found the secret of this text. His outline of this verse is the most intriguing truth ever contemplated by the minds of men, and spoken by the lips of any man. Here he describes this as the WORLD'S GREATEST TEXT.

Yes, the greatness of God was revealed that night long ago by the lips of God Himself who told Nicodemus that to be born again, one had to understand and believe these great truths. Let's take a moment and reflect on them, so we too can forever rejoice this season of Christmas and know the way to Heaven and life eternal. Our verse says,

John 3:16 (NIV) ""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."

The text revolves around ten magnificent words, which that dead soldier had outlined. These ten words make up what someone has said is the "constellation of the redeemer, in the firmament of the divine revelation of God." Yes, indeed, that night long ago Jesus Christ revealed to one of the world's most pious and moral religious men - his need to be rightly related to the God he worshipped and adored.

Some years ago the great evangelist D. L. Moody, who is credited with winning millions of people to Christ, was visiting England for a series of evangelistic meetings. While there he met a young preacher named Henry Morehouse. Moody and Morehouse hit it off and had many good discussions about Christ and God's great love. Morehouse asked if he were ever to come to America, would Moody allow him to preach at his famous church in Chicago. Moody said yes. Well, the day arrived that Morehouse came to Chicago and asked Moody if he could preach. The story says a reluctant Moody surrendered his pulpit in honor of his pledge, and assumed he would be gone shortly after that. Well Henry Morehouse chose as his text, that great passage found in John 3:16. He proceeded to preach on the subject of this verse, the love of God with such passion and power that Moody was awe struck and knew God was speaking and beginning a revival service in his midst.

So Moody asked Morehouse to take the whole week and preach every night till the next Lord's day. Well Morehouse accepted and the people were excited. The next night everyone waited to here this Englishman's new text. However, Morehouse said he would speak again on John 3:16. This went on every night, as the same text was the subject of this messenger from God. Moody at first was annoyed, but soon was completely overwhelmed, because God had sent him to this great preacher mainly I suppose, to speak to Moody himself. D. L Moody had never before understood the love of God, as Morehouse preached it. So taken by the truths surrounding God's love, the Lord changed D. L. Moody forever by it! Yes, this little man Morehouse who was never heard of again, was used by God to "move the man who moved millions into the kingdom of God!" And, my friend that was all because of the power of this one verse of Scripture.

Yes indeed, John 3:16 is the greatest text in the Bible for it reveals God is the greatest lover with the greatest love who poured out that love to the greatest company of life, the world of man. Inasmuch, God performed the greatest act of giving His "one and only Son," Jesus Christ, as the greatest gift the world could ever receive. Yet, this verse reveals that this greatest gift was not the hope of a select few but whoever accepted the message and acted upon it would receive this greatest of gifts. So, with the greatest simplicity and attraction, God offers the greatest escape and the promise of the greatest possession with, most comforting of all, the greatest assurance one can have concerning such matters. Oh, praise God, has the greatness of this text ever so touched your heart?

Let's examine it again, for it's too important and too magnanimous to ignore or lightly pass over. The Bible so wonderfully says,

John 3:16 (NIV) ""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."

Here we read again of these ten important words: God, loved, world, gave, Son, whoever, believes, perish, have and life. The text begins with GOD as everything must. Nothing exists, nothing is real except that in the beginning God, "created," all things. You see friend, one must begin there to enter and receive this greatest of gifts. Sadly, millions today are taught that life evolved from some primordial slime where some random gas got together and burped out life as we know it. But, to believe that requires the greatest of faith and the most arrogant of heart. So God confronts man's intellect to challenge us to confess what is easier to believe that everything around us is rather the "signature of God" who created everything. Yes, in the beginning GOD is the "prime mover" of all things including redemption and salvation from our sins.

Now, the second word we find in John 3:16 is the word, LOVED. The Bible my friend, especially this Christmas Season, is God's love letter to a lost and dying world of sinners separated from the life of God. For from cover to cover, the Bible reveals that God is a holy, just, and righteous God, but also a loving God! How sad millions upon millions of people have chosen to worship gods that do not love them. Such gods impose strict rules for living that abuse, torture and make loathsome the lives of multitudes who strain under the yoke of bondage to them. But not the one true God in the Bible. He is love. We read in,

1 John 4:8 (NIV) "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

This phrase "God is love," is important to understand. The Bible does not say God loves, but the original Greek language put it as "THE GOD, IS LOVE." Indeed, God's very makeup, His entire existence is based on His ability, desire, and nature to love what He has created. So the Christian Bible and its message reveals God cares for every human being He has given physical life.

Now of course, love really doesn't exist does it, unless it is tangibly placed upon an object and sacrificially poured out upon it. For instance, when we enter a marriage relationship we promise to love and cherish our new mates, "till death do us part," meaning we are going to display that love in every situation of life, especially through times of great trial, stress, hopelessness and sin. This is what God says He has done. "For God so loved the world that He gave.." Giving in love is the essence of what love really is. God performed the greatest act of love when He gave the world, His "one and only Son." You see this is why the greatest sin in the world is to reject the greatest gift of love mankind could ever receive. To spurn Jesus Christ, to reject Him as God's gift and offer of forgiveness and eternal life, is the greatest insult to the God of Creation!

Just think, this Season of Christmas as we dwell upon God's great gift sent to us in a manger, There Jesus Christ entered humanity, as the infinite God/Man sent to us as God the Father's greatest gift to creation's greatest sinners, the fallen spiteful, unappreciative, arrogant, self-willed, and self consumed children of Adam and Eve, the human race. Ah, but in this verse my friend, is the greatest opportunity with the greatest simplicity and attraction. The text says,

John 3:16 (NIV) ""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."

Herein we find that the God who created us, who is self-existing, uncreated, having need of nothing, has chosen to love His rebellious creation of mankind, and to make it as easy as possible for fallen, lost sinners to find Him and receive the love of His forgiveness. How simple then is the Christian Gospel that so many make difficult. How sad, millions of religious sects teach that for anyone to be saved from their sins, to be born from above, to receive eternal life and to enter Heaven for eternity - well they must perform religious rites, sacraments, good deeds, and all forms of penance and suffer punishments to experience the love of God. But I say to you is that love? Why even by human understanding, can anyone say love requires the duty of performance to receive it?

Not so with God! His love is available to the greatest sinner, the most noble and intelligent of men and the most ignoble and ignorant of all. The Bible makes it simple, so simple that even a child can grasp what God wants for all to be born again and forgiven all their sins. What is it? John 3:16 tells us,

John 3:16 (NIV) ""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."

My friend there it is - the true measure of God's love in the greatest simplicity, attraction and assurance. All anyone must do to be rightly related to God is BELIEVE! Believe what? Believe that God loves you enough to have sent His Son Jesus Christ, who alone was able to live, in perfect righteousness, before a holy perfect God. In so doing, Christ alone earned a place in Heaven, which no other human being ever has done nor can do. And, through His righteousness Christ became a worthy candidate to be a substitute for the sins of all humanity.

Yes, God wants us to believe the Gospel, that Christ is God come in the flesh, that He lived a perfect life and offered it up to the father God, as a substitute for our sins and our impending penalty of death coming for our sins. And if anyone, that is what "whosoever," means, just believes God's message, they will be SAVED and BORN AGAIN!

Say, have you so believed? I'm not asking if you attend church, or have been baptized, or live a good life and give to God, even sacrificially. I'm asking what Jesus asked thousands of years ago from a worthy holy man better that you and me combined - He asked: "Have you been born again? Nicodemus obviously had not, for he had not believed in and on the only One who could save Him from sin and death's penalty to come. Yet that night of visitation with the Lord, I believe Nicodemus went away cleansed of his sins. I'm convinced, that he had so believed as Jesus called upon him to do. Some might say, "How do I know?" Well, later on after Jesus' death, the Bible tells us in John 19:39, that Nicodemus was one who took Jesus' body from the cross carefully embalmed it, and lay it in the grave. As such, we know no Christ hater would have ever done that! But Nicodemus, as good as he had been, as faithful to follow his religion as he had done, still needed to be born again, because God Himself said so!

My friend, this Christmas Season there is no greater time when Christ is presented in no greater way. For lastly, God offers the greatest gift and possession one can ever obtain. We read the Christmas story and this great truth in,

John 1:1 (NIV) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

John 1:14 (NIV) "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Galatians 4:4 (NIV) "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,"

John 3:16 (NIV) ""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."

Yes, the gift of eternal life, the very life of God came to earth and became a man, and now in the Bible is promised to all who trust in and rely upon Jesus Christ as their God and Savior. What is eternal life? It is the very life and heart of God given to His creation that comes into a right relationship to Him.

Say friend, have you been born again? I know I have. Yes, some twenty five years ago, God reached down to this poor lost sinner trying to do the best he could and failing miserably, and God offered the greatest gift through the greatest invitation, to receive Jesus Christ by faith.

Oh I thank God and praise Him ever more, and especially this Season of Christ, that He loved me so much to go to the cross and die for me and then be raised from the dead, and to live for me forever more. That my friend is real, true love that none of us can understand, but all of us can appropriate by accepting the gospel message of John 3:16. And, unless we do so, the Bible says all shall perish. Good men, bad men, religious men, pagan men, moral men, and immoral men - all will perish unless they come to God believing in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior! So the Bible reveals that God would have all the human race come to repentance, a changed mind about God and His way of salvation - but notice, God leaves such a decision up to each and every one of us.

You know, Jesus went up and down the countryside preaching, teaching, healing, and talking to people about the need to be born again. Christmas and all its trappings and tinsel, is meaningless unless we see the greatest invitation it brings to all, to receive into our hearts God's love of His Son. No greater invitation has ever been given to God's creation, that each Christmas day unveils in the birth of God as a man, as Savior for our sins. May the truths this Season brings change your mind and heart, and may you lay aside the fairy tale foolishness the sin darkened mind of man has made of this season and reflect on this greatest of all truth today. Yes, the invitation is out, the gift is fully offered, but the time to receive it is short, and someone listening needs to respond.

So today my friend, you and every one of us has a choice. A choice we can only make while we have breath in our bodies. We can choose life, but only by choosing Christ, and only by choosing God's Word as truth, and only by choosing to become a Christian, for by this we can enter the joy, happiness, peace and love of the Lord, and receive the greatest possession ever to be found - His everlasting life, as our very own. So friend, may this "good news" of the Christmas Season be your personal possession now and forevermore. Amen.

The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures.A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request.These weekly radio commentaries can be heard in selected areas around the nation. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for 16 years, and serves as General Director. These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of all messages is available upon request also.

For further information, reprints, or a listing of all topics, please write to our speaker, Dennis L. Finnan(wwyfin@sparc.isl.net), or visit our webpage at [ http://www.isl.net/wwyweb.html ].