Now, as we look at this short passage this afternoon, I just want to ask one question, which is a question that a lot of people ask.
It's the question that's on the front of your sheet this afternoon, and it's the question, if God is supposed to be a God of love, why does he let his son die?
If God is supposed to be a loving God, yet 2,000 years ago, a man the Bible claims was God's son, Jesus Christ, the exact representation of God himself as a human being, was killed.
And God let that happen.
And I want us to see why those two things are joined together.
How can God be a loving God and yet his son died?
Because it could be, couldn't it, that God is a loving God, but Jesus died a tragic death.
That somehow the plan, whatever it was, went awfully wrong.
God is a loving God, but Jesus died.
It was a tragic mistake.
Or it could be that God is not at all loving.
Jesus trusted God with all of his heart, but Jesus got killed.
And God, his father, failed him.
Because on the face of it, those two things don't seem to match at all, do they?
If I allowed my three-year-old son to die, and I could have stopped it,
you wouldn't think that I was a loving father at all, would you?
I would probably be arrested and put in prison.
And that is sometimes what people think happened when Jesus Christ died on the cross.
In a book that was written a few years ago, it's quite a while ago now,
a writer caused a bit of a storm by suggesting that Jesus' death had a very sinister motive behind it.
This writer says that the way Christians have understood Jesus' death
sounds like a form of cosmic child abuse.
That God was a vengeful father, punishing his son for an offence he'd never committed.
If God is all-loving and all-powerful, then it's either a huge error, isn't it?
Or God the Father really is a cosmic child abuser.
But what sort of God reveals himself to us in the Bible?
I want to say to you this afternoon, it isn't God is loving, but Jesus died.
It is, actually, God is loving, so Jesus is killed, Jesus dies.
But I don't want you to just listen to my words, I want you to listen to Jesus' words.
And we hear Jesus' words here, don't we, in John's Gospel.
And in this passage, in John's book, John's eyewitness account of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus,
Jesus here is speaking to a local religious leader called Nicodemus.
And he is an expert on the Jewish religion.
And in this conversation, Jesus tells Nicodemus about his mission,
about the purpose of his life.
And strangely, Jesus turns the conversation to speak about his own death.
If you look at verse 14 at the top there,
Jesus says,
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Now, in kind of Bible language,
Jesus there is using an illustration,
based on a story in the Old Testament.
And he's using an illustration to describe his own death.
And so, first off, Jesus knowingly speaks here, doesn't he,
about his death.
That he must be lifted up on a cross.
And so, his death is intentional.
Jesus' death is planned.
It's intentional.
His death is not a blunder.
It's not a failure in the plan.
Oh, the result of God's vengefulness.
Jesus himself speaks about it as something that he knows is going to happen.
And it's planned.
And there is an intention behind it.
Jesus knows that he has come to die.
A little bit later on in John's Gospel,
he records Jesus talking about himself like a shepherd.
In another famous passage.
Looking after his people.
And Jesus says,
I am the good shepherd.
Why?
Because I lay my life down for my sheep.
No one takes my life from me, he says.
But I lay it down.
Jesus says,
My purpose on this earth is to be a shepherd for my people.
And I am going to do that by dying.
That is the plan.
Jesus' death, it's intentional.
In another Gospel, Luke's Gospel,
it's another compilation of evidence about Jesus Christ.
In Luke 9,
Jesus says many, many times,
The Son of Man must suffer.
And be rejected and be killed.
And on the third day rise.
You see, Jesus understood.
This was his great mission in his life.
Was his death.
And all through the Gospel accounts,
we read about Jesus being convinced about this.
About this mission.
There are several moments where he could have easily avoided death, actually.
Jesus didn't, for example,
stay in the north part of Israel,
up in Galilee,
where he could have hid out in the country, couldn't he?
No, he resolutely goes to Jerusalem,
where he knows all of the threat is.
And when people give him the option
to avoid death,
he tells them off.
And he says,
Don't.
Don't think that way.
No, he lays his own life down of his own accord.
He's not a victim.
Jesus' death was intended by Jesus himself.
God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
plans his death together.
It was a violent death, wasn't it?
But it wasn't an abusive, unplanned death.
It was a voluntary death.
God is loving, but Jesus died?
No, it was intentional.
But secondly,
Jesus' death was
a loving thing
for the Father to allow.
It was a loving thing
to do.
Looking back at the passage
in John's Gospel here,
just notice the connection
between Jesus' death
and God's love.
It is probably one of the most famous verses
in the Bible, isn't it?
John 3, 16.
God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son.
You see, love,
not vengeance,
not hate,
not abuse,
is the motivation for this plan.
God so loved the world.
I don't know if you've seen on Sky TV
the Discovery Channel.
It's a channel all about
the world of nature.
And the Discovery Channel,
they launched an ad
a couple of years ago
to kind of get people
to sign up to there,
to subscribe to their channel.
And the tagline,
the kind of phrase
that they kept saying
through this ad was,
the world is just awesome,
said.
And the advert
kind of had images
going across jungles
and deserts
and the kind of thing
you can imagine
on the Discovery Channel.
And it had a song
and it went like this.
I love the mountains,
I love the clear blue skies,
I love the oceans,
I love the world,
I love all of its sights
and sounds,
I love giant squids,
I love it when the air is thin,
I love the whole world,
it's such a wonderful place.
It's a wonderful world,
isn't it,
according to Louis Armstrong.
There is a lot
to love about the world.
But the thing is,
when we read this passage
in John 3.16,
we've kind of got
Discovery Channel mode
in our minds
when we read
that God so loved the world.
And that maybe
doesn't seem like
a surprise to us,
does it?
That is how we expect
God to feel about the world,
if we're watching
the Discovery Channel,
and it's how we expect
God to feel about us.
We are good people,
aren't we?
We're nice.
We're good people,
we're lovable people.
That's how we expect
God to feel about us,
and that's how we expect
other people to feel
about us,
isn't it?
But can I ask you
that if people knew
all there was
to know about you
this afternoon,
would you still expect
them to love you?
If people knew
every single thought
that you'd had
about them,
and everything
that you've said
in private
about them,
if they could see
every moment
of anger,
every hidden thing
of your life
was somehow recorded
and played
on a big screen
behind us,
would you still
expect them
to love you then?
You know,
speaking personally,
love is the last
thing I'd expect
you to feel for me.
Actually,
when you strip away
the veneer,
I am pretty unlovable
underneath it all.
The real me
actually makes me
feel pretty ashamed.
And so,
it is amazing,
really,
isn't it,
how if we feel
like that with
other people,
with the real me,
we can imagine
that God would
love us
with all that
he knows about us.
So,
do you see the shock
of what Jesus
is saying here?
Jesus' death
is motivated
by God's love,
not of the lovable
you,
but of the
unlovable you,
and of the real
you.
God loves
the unlovable,
and that is the
motivation behind
this plan.
Now,
you might be
thinking,
well,
if God does
love me,
he's got a bit
of a funny way
of showing it,
hasn't he?
It is not the
most romantic
thing,
is it,
to declare your
love for somebody
and then just
kind of die for
them.
If I say to
my wife,
I love you,
and then I just
run in front of
a bus,
it makes no
sense at all.
Jesus' death
was intentional,
and it was
loving,
but thirdly and
crucially,
it was loving
because it was
necessary.
His death
was necessary.
Just look at
verse 14 again.
Jesus says,
so must
the Son of
Man be
lifted up.
that whoever
believes in
him may
have life.
Verse 17,
in order that
the world
might be
saved through
him.
John is
saying quite
clearly here,
isn't he,
that because
Jesus dies,
people who
believe in
him can have
life.
But unless
Jesus dies,
there is no
life.
unless Jesus
dies,
actually we
are in
great danger,
and we
need saving,
is the word
he uses.
Jesus' death
is loving
because somehow
it is absolutely
necessary for
us.
And I think
we get a
clue about
why that is
in verse 18.
If you look
down,
he says,
whoever believes
in him is not
condemned,
but whoever
does not believe
is condemned
already,
because he's
not believed
in the name
of the only
Son of God.
There's a TV
show on
iPlayer,
BBC iPlayer
at the moment,
that follows
the life of
prisoners on
death row.
It's interesting,
it's slightly
morbid,
in a prison
in America.
And many of
these inmates,
many of them
are there for
years,
sometimes decades,
but in the
end their
fate is always
clear.
They know
where they're
heading.
But what is
truly bizarre
about this
place is that
prisoners can
kind of get on
with something
of a normal
life.
Outside,
the prisoners
can while away
their time
playing basketball.
They can have
a game of
cards with
other inmates.
They can chat,
they can enjoy
sports.
It is a truly
bizarre scene
where you can
see these guys
playing basketball
outside,
knowing that
there is a
day not far
away than
when they
will meet
their fate.
But while
there is some
semblance of
life in the
prison,
they are
constantly
reminded of
where they
are going.
Because to
get back into
the building,
back into
their cells,
they have to
walk past the
sign that
says,
condemned
unit.
There are
signs around
the basketball
saying,
condemned
exercise yard.
And then
in the
corridors,
as they
walk to
their
cells,
there is
a sign
saying,
condemned
row.
And no
matter how
much basketball
they play,
and how many
card games
they play,
they can
never forget
where they
are heading.
They know
they are
condemned
men.
They are
condemned
to die.
They are
condemned to
death already.
And you see,
that is a poor
illustration really,
but that is
why John
says Jesus'
mission to
die was
necessary.
Because there
is a God
who made
this world,
and whilst
he is a God
of love,
he does not
love all
things.
This God
of love,
he does not
love murder.
And he
doesn't love
rape.
He doesn't
love the kind
of things that
people get
put in prison
for.
He is a
loving God,
but he
doesn't love
all things.
He hates
some things,
and that is
good,
isn't it?
It is not
loving to
say,
well,
there is
child abuse
in the world,
but I'm
not all
that bothered
actually.
Actually,
he is a
loving God
because he
doesn't love
all things.
He hates
wrong things,
and he hates
evil.
And he does
something about
wrong things.
He condemns
it to
judgment.
He sets
a date
when all
wrong things
will be
put right.
And actually,
wrong things
will be put
to death
forever,
to make a
world that
is only
good.
And the
more we
look at
ourselves,
that sounds
like good
news,
doesn't it?
But the
more we
look at
ourselves,
the more
we realise
that we
ourselves
are part
of those
condemned
things.
Yes,
he is a
God of
love,
but he
doesn't love
all things.
He doesn't
love pride.
He doesn't
love selfishness.
He doesn't
love anger.
He doesn't
love envy.
And as you
go through
the list,
it gets
really close
to home,
doesn't it?
And the
more I'm
honest with
myself,
I realise
that this
truly loving
God,
if he really
is loving,
then he
should
condemn
me.
problem
is,
isn't it,
that we
believe that
when Jesus
comes,
we are in
some way
morally
neutral,
or we're
kind of
just good
people.
But John
says,
no,
the verdict
has already
been given
even before
Jesus came.
He is a
God of
love because
he doesn't
love all
things,
and he
condemns
some things,
and he
condemns
evil,
and so that
means as
well as
those great
big crimes
we hear
of that
people go
to prison
for,
I am
also in
danger.
Jesus
comes
intentionally,
and lovingly,
and necessarily
to bear the
weight of
my condemnation,
so that
all of my
wrongdoing
might be
condemned
to death,
whilst I
can still
live.
It's what
John says,
isn't it,
verse 17,
in order,
that the
world might
be saved
through him.
And just
notice how
there is no
other way
that God
can do
this.
There is
no other
way of us
avoiding the
condemnation
that we
deserve.
See,
God gives
his only
son that
we should
be saved
through him.
So it's
less,
isn't it,
God is a
loving God
but Jesus
died.
Actually,
it is,
God is
a loving
God,
so Jesus
dies
and Jesus
is killed.
It was
intentional,
it was
planned,
and it
was the
most loving
thing that
God could
do for
us,
to do
what was
necessary for
condemned
people like
you and
for me.
We're going
to close
now.
Really,
you've got to
think about
the options,
haven't you?
How do
you respond
to this
message?
Because the
one thing
that you
can't do
is just
sit on the
fence with
this,
isn't it?
You can't
be indifferent
to this
message.
Your response
will either
say,
this is all
just make
believe,
none of it
is true,
and Jesus
really hasn't
got anything
to do with
me,
and I don't
want anything
to do with
him.
Or,
you can
admit that
Jesus shows
us a God
who is
everything to
do with
me.
And,
he is a
God who
is your
only hope
in the
face of
condemnation,
the condemnation
that really
you know
you deserve.
And if
you can
admit that,
then John
says quite
simply,
what you
need to
do is
believe,
isn't it?
That whoever
believes in
him should
not perish,
but have
eternal life.
That your
condemnation is
laid upon
Jesus,
and it's
put to
death,
that you
might live
forever.
And so I'm
going to pray
now to ask
God to help
us to do
this.