John 3:16. I know that more the odds of every one of us in here have heard this verse is pretty good. In fact I’m pretty sure that most of us know definitely have this verse memorized. It is one of those verses that every Christian seems to know pretty well. In fact, all we need to see is John 3:16 and we know exactly what’s being said.

We see John 3:16 written on bracelets and held up as signs at football games. Recently I saw that Christian author Max Lucado came out with a new book entitled John 3:16. Luther himself called John 3:16 the Gospel in miniature because it told the story of salvation so succinctly. I have also heard of this verse called the Gospel in a nutshell, because what we need to know about salvation in a nutshell is found in this verse.

It is so amazing that one little verse can say so much to us. I want to break it down a little and examine it a piece at a time so that we can see what it tells us of.

John 3:16 tells us of:

1. The Greatest Love – God so loved the world

I find it so amazing that God has enough time to love me when He has the whole rest of the world to love. He loves me. He loves you. He loves us even though we are sinners. He even loves those who don’t believe He exists. He loves all of the atheists of the world. That is hard to believe, but He does. Name any kind of sinner there is in the world, and He loves that person. Every person in the world can be assured of His love.

There is a story that I found about a Sociology experiment that occurred at Johns Hopkins over 50 years ago. A professor asked his students go out into the Baltimore inner city and start interviewing the youth that lived there. After conducting the interviews the students were asked what they thought the future would hold for each youth. The students predicted that over 90% out of 200 youth that they interviewed would end up in prison at some point in their lives.

Twenty years go by and the professor decides to track down the youth, who are now adults, which his students had interviewed. After tracking down about 180 or so of those who were interviewed he discovered that only 4 had ever been in prison. He wondered how the statistics could have been so wrong. Something that the professor discovered was that each interviewee had listed a teacher that taught in the local public school as a great influence on their lives. The professor tracked down the teacher and asked her how she had such a positive influence on the lives of her students. Her response was simply, "All I ever did was to love each one of them."

So too is the power of God’s love for us. For God loves us no matter who we are, or even what society says about us. He will continue to love us no matter what.

John 3:16 tells us of:

2. The Greatest Gift – that He gave His One and Only Son
I don’t know why my life is so important the God allowed His son to go to the Cross for my sins. He loves all of us so much that His Son made the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. I suppose this was the easiest thing to know and the hardest to understand. In fact I still don’t understand. There are many people who have told me that the love you have for your children is so great and profound that it could never be put into words. Knowing that God chose to allow His Son, His perfect blameless Son die for me still dumbfounds me every time I think about it.

In Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities, the novel ends with an example of that sacrificial love, when one of the characters, Sydney Carton takes the place of another, Charles Darney, in the execution line to the guillotine during the French Revolution.

A very similar sacrifice we see in Jesus who took our place on the cross for all of us. Much as in the novel by Dickens the characters did not fully understand how someone could make such a sacrifice on behalf of another, so we too can never understand Jesus’ sacrifice. All we can truly know is that Jesus love for us was so great that he died on the cross for us.

John 3:16 tells us of:

3. The Greatest Faith – that whoever believes in Him shall not perish
Faith in Jesus Christ. The believing in Jesus. Trusting in Him. That is the greatest of all faith. This faith isn’t something that we have just once – the day we were saved – and then goes away. Faith in Jesus is to be refreshed in our hearts, minds, and souls every day. We refresh our faith by sharing it with others. Share this verse with them. Tell them what He’s done for you. Witness to everyone you encounter. We are a family that wants to keep growing every day. I know I want more family members. So let’s share our Faith so we can feed our Faith.

John 3:16 tells us of:

4. The Greatest Life – but have everlasting life
Life with Jesus is greater than any other life there is. Jesus bestows on us the greatest life there is eternal life. That is often the goal of every person who has ever lived, but only through Jesus Christ has it been achieved for us.

Back in medieval times there were legends about the Holy Grail, that once you drink from it, you would have eternal life here on earth. Today we have our own Holy Grail in the cup of Holy Communion that tells us that our sins are forgiven. So can achieve eternal life, not by what we do, but what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

Conclusion:

God has given us the Greatest Love, the Greatest Gift, the Greatest Faith, and the Greatest Life. All we have to do is accept it. The Love is free. The Gift is free. The Faith is free. The Life is free. This verse is only has 24 words in it. But these 24 words are the Gospel in a nut shell. May this little verse always be something that strengthens us and may it always be close to our hearts.