“BRING OTHERS: Evangelism & Sharing the Faith”

It was the very last Sunday for the Youth Minister at the Church. It was about twenty-four years ago, in Windsor, and Greg Doyle was moving away, to Parrsboro. I remember only one detail of the service well. Greg preached; I don’t remember his sermon. I don’t know what we prayed over him. I don’t recall what gifts he and his family were presented with at the reception after service. What I do remember is the youth who sat together in the balcony, and the big sign they held up as Greg began his farewell sermon. It was not a spiritual message from the teens, or a thank-you.  It was, of course, a joke; teasing and trying to distract their beloved leader in the pulpit. Like here, only the preachers and the Choir would see the sign. It was a big JOHN 3:16.

Maybe the Bible verse, John 3:16, should not be a joking matter. But it sometimes is, in our culture. I’ve heard it said, ‘For God so loved the world that He did not send a committee.’ Big JOHN 3:16 signs have been held up by sports fans in the stands for fifty years. I really noticed this happening twenty-five years ago. Never being a sports watcher on TV, even I knew this was happening a lot at the turn of the century. It this so important?

Evangelical Christianity has popularized this one Bible verse over the past century. We heard it read today, in context, as Jesus speaks with a curious Jewish leader and expert. Some of us memorized it somewhere along the way in our Christian training, probably in 1611 English. It gets touted as a clear, concise, powerful summary of ‘the Gospel.’ For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. It is beautiful. It is profound. It has been set to music many times. It is well known. Is it… Should it be the heart of our reaching people to help them be converted to Christ?

Not necessarily, but we should know how to use John 3:16 and 17. Because it is so well known, and because it is profound. 

God so loved the world. This is really ‘God loved the world like this, like so.’ Not really ‘loved so much’ but ‘loved like this.’ This is how God loved the world. ‘The world,’ in the Greek New Testament, by the way, is ‘cosmos.’ God so loved the cosmos. How did God love the world? By giving His only son. 

One connection that the first hearers of the Jesus and Nicodemus story would make, comes with what Jesus says just before, in what we call John 3:14 &15. “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” In that incredible story, Numbers 21, the discouraged children of Israel complained against Moses, their leader, and YHWH, their God. Venomous snakes came upon them and people started dying. The people repented. Moses prayed to God for the people; he was instructed to set up a bronze statue of a serpent, on a pole, for the people to look upon, and be healed. Look upon an image of what’s killing you, and be healed.

So with Jesus, look upon Him when He is lifted up, executed, and find life. Have confidence in God, when you meet Christ sharing our pain and our shame. Like those Israelites who complained bitterly, and then begged for mercy, all get saved from death simply by a look towards the Saviour. God saves in spite of people’s behaviour. Graciously.

In this century some wise preachers have reshaped some old ways of telling the Gospel by showing how our story is of a God who keeps turning towards us, lovingly. It is called the Gospel in Chairs. We can contrast this with a modern, legalistic understanding of ‘the gospel.’ Which goes like this…

God creates humankind in God’s image, to reflect glory and be together. 

But the people sinned, become sinners, and they turn from God.

God being holy and right and pure can’t bear to look upon sin, so God turns away from humanity. Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden.

The story repeats itself again and again, through the generations. Abraham and Sarai. Moses who leads. David who becomes king. The whole nation that keeps failing and faltering. Despite many attempts, people fail and God must turn away from them. 

Thanks be to God, in love the Son is sent to take our place, be perfect, and make our relationship with God right again. Jesus turned toward God, and God was toward Jesus. 

At the end of His life, Jesus takes our sin and shame into Himself. Thus, God the Father turns away from Jesus. The sacrifice of Jesus is to appease the wrath of God and take the punishment. 

Jesus is faithful in the mission, and God raises Him up from the dead. Now, if we turn to God, believing Jesus did all this, we get covered over as right and good. Now God can look upon us, turn to us again. 

But if we don’t trust this action of God and the Son, we are still under the wrath of God, and God stays turned away from us. And can stay turned away from us for ever. 

There can be problems when our faith message is told this way. For one thing, it can put salvation in our hands. So much seems to depend upon our decision, how we respond. Secondly, the message seems to pit God against us humans. As if the Creator is our enemy. Thirdly, the rather legal telling of the Gospel pits God against Jesus. Makes them enemies at points in the story. They are never enemies.

Look at another way to know the Gospel, the beautiful Good News… We start the same way. God creates humankind in God’s image, to reflect glory and be together. 

But Adam and Eve sinned, and they turn from God. They go off and hide from God. They turn away. What does God do? God goes looking for them! God sends them out of the garden, and they won’t eat from the tree again that caused their problem. 

The story repeats itself again and again, through the generations. Abraham and Sarai. Moses who leads. David who becomes king. The whole nation that keeps failing and faltering. With many attempts, people fail and turn away, over and over, yet God keeps turning toward them. 

Of all the scriptures I think of Hosea chapter 11. God’s nation has really fouled up, totally rejected God’s ways. Oh, I remember when you were but a baby, the LORD says. I was there teaching you to take your first steps. You kept wandering off, but I kept bringing you back. I held you in my arms. 

But oh! Now you’ve wrecked everything, so you are going to get what you deserve. Other nations are going to invade and destroy you!

But oh, oh! How could I do that, says the Lord. How could I treat you like that, my own child? “My compassion grows warm and tender… I will not come in wrath.” The chair keeps turning towards.

Then, thanks be to God, in love the Son is sent to us. See how he treats the hurting, the broken, the oppressed, the sinners, the lost. Jesus turns toward them, every day. And when executed, upon a cross, Jesus says, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.” Jesus is faithful in the mission, and God raises Him up from the dead. Now, we see that God is always turned towards us. Towards all.  ‘If God is for us, who could be against us?’ Romans 8 asks.

I want to tell you another story, the example of an amazing mother’s love for her adult daughter who died tragically. Perhaps you recently read the amazing and honest obituary the mother wrote. But I need to wait and take time for that some other Sunday. Like March 8^th, International Women’s Day. Let me just say now: I find a Saviour whose love meets us in the worst disasters of life, who cares for us in body and soul, and thinks so highly of us, no matter what. The best telling of the Gospel through the centuries has always said this. Shown this. Lived this. Given this. 

Loving compassion. For the whole world. Which is not simply a feeling, even a strong emotion. Love is action, activity, life. John 3:16 is no joke. Because that divine love is real. Because the verse before points out how we see the love in Jesus dying. Because the verse after assures us, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”